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When  Building  a  House 


READ 

The  Swiss  Chalet  Book, 

By  William  S.  B.  Dana. 

Rumford  Fireplaces  and  how  they  are 
made,  By  G.  Curtis  Gillespie. 

Two  Family  and  Twin  Houses, 

By  William  T.  Comstock. 

Garages  and  Motor  Boat  Houses, 

By  William  Phillips  Comstock. 

Wall  Papers  and  Wall  Coverings, 

By  Arthur  Seymour  Jennings. 

American  Renaissance,  a  Book  on  the 
History  of  Domestic  Colonial  Archi- 
tecture in  America, 

By  Joy  Wheeler  Dow. 


THE  WILLIAM  T.  COMSTOCK  CO. 

PUBLISHERS 
23  WARREN  STREET  NEW  YORK  CITY 


THE 

HOLLOW-TILE 
HOUSE 


A  book  wherein  the  Reader  is  introduced  to  Hollow-tile 
in  the  making,  is  told  how  it  is  wrought  into  houses 
and  is  shown  how  these  houses  look  and  from 
what  foreign  ancestry  their  appearance 
is  an  heritage.     Its   Key-note  is 
tuned   to    the    Concert- 
pitch  of  Progress. 


BY 
FREDERICK  SQUIRES,  A.  B.,  B.  S. 


With  215  Illustrations 
Chosen  from  Foreign  and  American  Sources 


THE  WILLIAM  T.  GOMSTOGK  GO. 
NEW  YORK 


COPYRIGHT.  1913 

BY 

THE  WM.  T.  COMSTOCK  CO. 


Zo 
ARTHUR  HARRIS 

THIS  BOOK  IS 
AFreCTIONATEir 
DEDICATED     Ji 


PREFACE 

THE  history  of  hollow-tile  speeds  along  like  moving  pictures 
and  to-day's  news  is  but  the  foundation  for  tomorrow's  for- 
ward progress.  The  field  was  well-nigh  untrodden,  when 
I  set  forth  upon  its  exploration  and  in  its  trackless  ways,  my  feet 
have  led  me  over  deserts  as  well  as  lands  of  promise. 

When  my  articles  appeared  in  Architecture  and  Building  they 
were  often  valuable  as  a  means  of  stating  that  which  I  sought  to 
prove,  and  of  recalUng  later  what  part  of  it  I  found  to  be  unprofit- 
able, but  at  the  end  of  some  of  these  early  statements  I  now  may 
write,  "Quod  erat  demonstrandum."  These  I  have  collected  in 
the  following  pages  which  I  humbly  submit  to  you  in  the  selfish 
hope  that  tile's  swift  progress  may  not  outstrip  its  printing  press 
and  antiquate  its  new-born  chronicle. 

I  wish  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  those  good  friends 
who  have  aided  me  with  picture  and  experience  in  this  story  of  a 
material  to  which  they  all  are  partisan.  In  particular,  I  thank  my 
partners,  past  and  present,  whose  drawings  and  pictures,  col- 
lected the  world  over,  have  furnished  the  high  lights  for  the  illus- 
trations. Then,  too,  there  are  manufacturers,  Fiske  &  Company 
and  the  National  Fire-proofing  Company,  who  have  lent  photo- 
graphs in  the  same  spirit  of  public  education  which  marks  their 
business  policy.  Publications  like  Concrete-Cement  Age,  the 
Architectural  Record,  and  Architecture  and  Building,  have  en- 
couraged me  to  spin  my  yarns,  and  now  that  I  have  collected  them 
between  these  covers,  to  them  I  make  grateful  acknowledgement. 

Frederick  Squires. 
December,  1913. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Intkoduction 17 

Chaptee  I.     Tile-Making 23 

Chaptek  II.     Old  World  Stucco 33 

Chapter  III.    About  Construction 43 

Chapter  IV.     Counting  the  Cost 57 

Chapter  V.     The  History  of  the  Use  of  Hollow  Tile 

FOR  Houses 67 

Chapter  VI.     Architects^  Tile  Houses 91 

Chapter  VII.    Building  the  Other  Man's  House    .      .  103 

Chapter  VIII.     Floor  Building 109 

Sand  Moulds 110 

The  T-Beam 116 

The  Beveled  Block 125 

The  Plaster  Block 128 

Chapter  IX.    Tile  in  Stucco  Surfaces 137 

Chapter  X.    Tricks  of  the  Trade 144 

Chapter  XI.     Tile  and  Concrete,  Partners  ....  159 

Chapter  XII.    Texture  and  Scale 165 

Chapter  XIII.    The  Flat-Roofed  House 183 

Chapter  XIV.    An  Interesting  Experiment  ....  189 

Chapter  XV.    The  House  of  Three  Inventions  .      .      .  201 


THE  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The  Texture- Tile  House Frontispiece 

Fig.  1 26 

Figs.  2,  3,  4 27 

Fig.  5 28 

Fig.  6 26 

Fig.  7 28 

Figs.  8,  9,  10,  11,  12 117 

Figs.  13,  14,  15 118 

Figs.  16,  17,  18 119 

Figs.  19,  20 120 

Fig.     21 122 

Figs.  22,  23 123 

Figs.  24,  25 124 

Figs.  26,  27,  28 129 

Figs.  29,  30,  31 130 

Figs.  32,  33 135 

Gate  of  Justice  of  the  Alhambra 21 

Inner  Court  of  the  Alhambra 22 

California  Mission  of  Spanish  Times 22 

Typical  Hollow-Tile  Factory 25 

Capri  from  the  Mediterranean 31 

An  Arched  Sidewalk  at  Ravello 31 

The  Villa  Medici  and  the  Villa  Borghesi 32 

Architecture  and  Sculpture  in  Plastics 35 

Ulm,  from  the  River  Danube,  and  from  its  Streets  .      .      .    36,  37 

Strassburg 38 

Capri  from  Amalfi 38 

An  Outside   Stair  at  Chartres  and  Overhanging  Gables  at 

Strassburg 39 

13 


14  LIST      OF      ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Picturesque  Stucco  at  Chartres  and  at  Rouen 40 

Church  and  House  of  the  Pages  of  Francis  I 41 

An  Old  English  Farm  House 41 

Chiddingstone,  England 42,  45 

A  Nearby  and  a  Distant  View  of  Cockington,  England    .      .     46 
Details  of  "Natco"  HoUow-Tile  Walls    ....  49,  50,  51,  52 

Plans  of  the  "Black  Forest  House" 54 

Mr.  Adams'  House  in  Course  of  Construction 55 

Stucco  and  Tile  Exterior  Surfaces  Contrasted 56 

Canterbury  from  the  River 59 

Entrance  to  Hampton  Court 59 

Nature  and  Plastic  Art 60 

Plans  of  Kendall  Banning's  House,  and  House  at  Bogota  .      .     62 

Two  Stucco  Covered  Tile  Houses 63 

Pioneer  Hollow-Tile  Houses 64 

Stucco  Houses  Adapted  from  English  Design    .      .      .      .    65,  66 

J,  J.  Adams'  House  at  Upper  Montclair 69,  71 

J.  P.  Taylor's  House  at  Tenafly,  N.  J 70,  72,  73 

Home  of  William  C.  Calkins,  Jr.,  at  Flushing,  N.  Y.    .      .      .74 

Fireproof  Bungalow  at  Seagate,  N.  Y 76,  77 

"Bow-Marchioness" 78 

Stucco- Covered  Tile  House  at  Greenwich,  Conn.    .      .      .    79,  80 
Combination  of  Small  Houses  at  Forest  Hills  Gardens     .      .     83 

An  American  Home 84 

Plans  of  a  House  for  J.  William  Clark 86 

House  of  Thomas  H.  Kerr 87 

House  of  Mr.  Winthrop,  Siosset,  L.  1 88,  89 

A  Terrace  Pool 90 

Home  of  Mrs.  D.  F.  Wendehack 93,  98 

Home  of  William  Adams  Delano    ...  ....    94,  95 

Home  of  W.  Leslie  Walker 96 

Winter  Scenes  at  Forest  Hills  Gardens,     .      .  99,  100,  101,  102 

A  "Black  Forest  House" 105 

An  Enghsh  Fireproof  House 104,  105 


LIST      OF      ILLUSTRATIONS  15 

PAGE 

Pioneer  Fireproof  Houses  in  Newark,  N.  J 106 

Stucco  and  Half-Timber  at  Forest  Hills  Gardens  ....  107 

Forest  Hills  Gardens 108 

St.  Paul's,  Rome 113 

An  Elaborate  Ceiling 114 

Leatherstocking  Falls 136 

Tile  Decoration  of  an  Exedra 139 

Tile  in  Classic  Design 140 

Tile  Set  in  a  Stucco  Wall 141 

Tile  Enlivening  the  Stucco  of  a  City  House 142 

"The  Whole  Bag  of  Tricks"    .      .    ' 145 

The  House  Built  Around  a  Tree 146 

An  Architect's  House  Before  and  After  Redesigning    .      .      .151 

Another  Redesigned  House 152 

House  and  Church  Decorated  with  Concrete 155 

Vygeberg  Farm,  the  Residence  of  Edward  D.  Page,  156,  157,  158 

Roman  Brick  in  the  Palatine  Arch 161 

Mausoleum  of  a  Shah  at  Samarkand .      .  162 

Ruins  of  St.  Botolph's  Priory 163 

San  Stephano  at  Bologna 164,  167,  168 

Fifteenth  Century  House  at  Lindfield,  Sussex 169 

Brick  in  the  Decoration  of  a  Modern  House 170 

Shingles  in  the  Scale  of  Texture-Tile 173 

Leatherstocking  Farmhouse 174,  175 

Dutch  Farmhouse  at  Leonia,  N.  J 176 

Old  Church  at  Broglie 179 

Gargoyle  Gate  at  Williams  College 1 80 

Large  Scale  in  Brick  Work 181 

Chateau  de  Bizj'-  at  Vernon 182 

Morgan  Art  Gallery 183 

Petit  Trianon 183,  184 

Residence  of  William  G.  Mather,  Cleveland,  0 184 

Whitney  Studio 185 

House  at  Greenwich,  Conn 185 


16  LIST      OF      ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Residence  of  Murry  Guggenheim 186 

Residence  of  Horace  D.  Lyon 191,  192 

Brick  Laid  with  the  Side  Exposed  to  Get  a  Larger  Unit    .      .  193 

Residence  of  Mr.  Patterson 194 

Residence  of  R.  C.  Gambee 195,  197 

Residence  of  Henry  B.  Newhall 198,  199 

Residence  of  Mr.  Atwood 196,  200 

Residence  of  K.  B.  C.  Smith 200 

Elevations  in  Texture-Tile 202 

Residence  of  Lewis  Squires 203,  204,  205 

Units  of  Texture-Tile 206 


INTRODUCTION 

OLD-TIME  French  novelists  followed  the  daring  custom  of 
outlining  the  plot  of  a  story  in  its  introduction,  gallantly 
relieving  the  curiosity  of  contemporary  ladies  without  the 
embarrassment  of  a  peep  at  the  final  pages.  They  believed  that 
each  page  should  be  so  written  that  it  would  hold  the  reader's  at- 
tention to  itself,  despite  the  fact  that  he  knew  exactly  what  was 
going  to  happen.  He  would  thus  be  the  more  intimately  inter- 
ested in  the  development  of  a  tale  the  outcome  of  which  was  to  him 
foreknown.  Following  this  ancient  and  honorable  custom,  I  am 
going  to  tell  you  the  plot  of  hollow-tile  and  then  elaborate  by  pen 
and  picture  in  the  desire  to  lead  you  page  by  page  to  the  one  marked 
Finis. 

There  would  never  have  been  a  book  on  hollow-tile  if  some- 
body in  this  modern  generation,  as  much  a  genius  at  hole-making 
as  Peter  Newell  with  his  Hole-Book,  had  not  discovered  a  new 
way  to  burn  pieces  of  clay  by  hollowing  them  into  thin  partitions. 
From  Egyptian  and  Assyrian  times  to  the  day  of  this  Peter  Newell 
of  hollow-tile,  the  fact  that  only  brick-sized  building  clay  could  be 
successfully  burned  had  been  accepted  as  incontrovertible.  Now- 
a-days  the  limit  in  size  is  set  not  by  the  burning  limit,  but  the  weight 
limit,  a  difference  of  many  hundred  per  cent.,  which  has  made 
possible  this  new  construction  and  this  new  book. 

Our  tile  houses  first  appeared  in  plaster  finery,  as  have  ma- 
sonry houses  of  many  other  times  and  lands.  In  fact,  wherever 
you  find  charm  in  house-clothing,  in  that  country  you  will  find 
stucco-covered  houses,  and  so  struck  was  I  with  this  thought  that  I 

17 


18  INTRODUCTION 

have  selected  pictures  from  Spain,  Germany,  France,  Italy  and, 
best  of  all,  from  England,  to  illustrate  the  point  and  show  artistic 
influences  on  dwellings  of  to-day. 

How  are  our  houses  built?,  is  a  question  which  pardonable 
curiosity  propounds,  and  a  few  pages  on  this  subject  will  not  be 
amiss  even  if  I  have  to  bring  in  short  descriptions  of  such  com- 
panion materials  as  are  required  under  the  roof  of  this  house  with 
walls  of  tile. 

Do  the  arguments  for  hollow-tile  that  appeal  to  the  home- 
builder  convince  as  well  the  man  who  builds  for  sale?  Does  the 
architect  who  knows  all  kinds  of  building  materials  choose  tile  for 
his  own  abode?  Such  are  subtle  questions  and  I  am  not  going  to 
answer  them  here,  but  near  the  middle  of  the  book  you  will  find  a 
chapter  which  might  well  be  called  "Physician,  heal  thyself!" 

Not  only  may  stucco  surfaces  be  pleasantly  diversified  by  the 
treatment  of  the  plaster  itself,  but  they  may  be  embellished  with 
ornamental  tile,  and  this  possibiUty  is  illuminated  in  a  chapter  of 
its  own. 

I  remember,  as  a  boy,  the  joyful  work  of  "branding"  when 
we  were  called  upon  to  throw  back  on  top  of  brush-pile  fires  the 
burned-off  brands  which  formed  dead  circles  round  them.  The 
path  of  the  blaze  was  upward,  not  outward,  and  I  have  often 
thought  of  this  when  I  have  seen  a  so-called  fireproof  building  with 
fireproof  outside  walls  and  fuel  floors  placed  right  in  fire's  natural 
path.  Against  such  absurditj^  a  chapter  on  fireproof  floors  is 
aimed,  wherein  are  shown  systems  for  placing  real  blankets  over 
flames.  In  this,  the  sand-molded  ceiling  gives  sparkle  to  a  tech- 
nical description. 

"Tricks  of  the  trade"  is  the  burden  of  a  chapter  on  the  de- 
signer's art.  In  it  are  given  away  all  those  clever  tricks  by  means 
of  which  the  architect  charms  beauty  out  of  sticks  and  stones. 
After  you  have  read  it  you  can  go  and  do  likewise — perhaps — or 
at  least  appreciate  artistic  efforts  in  your  behalf.  In  it,  also,  is 
heard  Nature's  protest  against  the  atrocities  of  the  untrained  hand 
of  man;  and  in  it  is  shown  how  a  trained  hand  may  still  her  cry. 


INTRODUCTION  19 

Painting  with  so  big  a  brush  into  Nature's  background  demands 
description  even  in  a  tile-book. 

Along  with  such  digressions  I  will  essay  a  word  on  the  subject 
of  concrete  and  the  way  architectural  embellishment  holds  its  place 
by  means  of  it  beside  advances  in  construction.  In  fact,  for  many 
parts  of  fireproof  buildings,  concrete  is  the  necessary  partner  of 
hollow- tile.  This  is  particularly  true  in  beam  work,  and  it  applies 
to  many  of  the  minor  but  important  parts  of  buildings.  It  is 
through  the  growing  use  of  concrete  as  an  accessory  to  other  build- 
ing materials  that  concrete  has  made  its  greatest  gains  in  house 
construction,  and  here  I  will  digress  from  the  main  topic  to  explain 
its  partnership  with  tile. 

Will  structural  innovations  change  the  aspect  of  architectural 
design?  The  question  is  so  hackneyed  that  it  is  with  reluctance  that 
I  ask  it,  especially  since  I  do  not  know  the  answer.  Merely  as  a 
suggestion,  I  will  write  a  chapter  on  flat-roofs.  If  you  have  read 
the  book  to  this  point,  you  may  stop  and  write  your  own  answer  to 
the  aesthetic  question  just  propounded.  I'm  sure  it  will  make,  for 
you  at  least,  better  reading  than  would  mine. 

Tile  is  the  big  brother  of  the  brick.  Up  to  this  point  in  tlie 
story  its  real  identity  as  an  external  has  been  covered  up,  but 
though  long  obscured,  it  will  come  into  its  outward  own  in  Texture- 
Tile.  In  order  to  explain  it  I  will  call  on  brick,  both  very  old  and 
very  new,  to  illustrate  its  aims  and  point  out  its  ultimate  goal,  and 
for  this  purpose,  brick-work  from  Assyria  to  America  will  be 
shown,  and  after  bricks'  lesson  has  been  taught,  I  will  apply  its 
deductions  to  Texture-Tile. 

I've  alread}'^  taken  more  than  my  allotted  space  in  telling  you 
about  old  stucco  buildings,  stuccoed  tile  and  its  treatment,  floor 
making,  tricks  of  the  designer's  trade,  brick  and  its  big  brother, 
Texture-Tile.  There  will  be  no  chapter  marked  "Conclusion," 
for  my  whole  book  is  but  a  Genesis. 

So  I  have  finished  my  French  introduction.  You  have  the 
plot.  I  will  now  set  out  on  the  more  difiicult  feat  of  keeping  your 
attention  to  the  pages  which  follow.    "Eyes  in  the  boat,"  I  used  to 


20  INTRODUCTION 

hear  the  coxswain  call  to  his  oarsman  in  the  Fall  eights  on  the 
Hudson.  Fortunately,  I  have  a  chance  to  hold  the  attention  of 
those  eyes  of  yours  by  means  of  pictures  chosen  from  the  whole 
known  world  and  all  time. 


21 


THE  INNER  COURT  OF  THE  ALHAMBRA. 


^■•%^^'?^»^ 


Pi;ol^5i?»'ixv^;^., 


A    CALIFORNIA    ill.SSlOX    HAVING    THE  FAMILY    HERITAGE    OF    SPANISH    BEAUTY'. 


22 


CHAPTER  I 

Tile-Making. 

WHEX  one  needs  must  begin  there  is  no  better  rule  than 
to  begin  at  the  beginning.  Since  I  know  little  of  geol- 
ogy, earth-building,  and  the  like,  my  beginning  may 
go  no  further  back  than  the  clay  of  which  the  tile  is  made,  but  if 
I  start  you  in  beside  a  clay  bank  and  bring  you  out  beside  a  fire- 
proof house,  you  will  have  travelled  quite  as  far  as  these  pages 
ought  to  carry  you. 

Distributed  all  over  the  United  States  are  clay  deposits  and 
New  Jersey,  around  Perth  Amboy,  where  these  pictures  were 
taken,  is  made  of  nothing  else.  Figure  1  shows  a  typical  clay-pit 
and  the  miners  who  work  it.  They  have  paused  a  moment  for  the 
picture,  some  with  their  picks  and  shovels  in  their  hands  and  others 
standing  beside  the  httle  cars  which  carry  the  clay  along  narrow- 
gauge  tracks  to  the  factory.  When  the  cars  are  filled  they  are 
hauled  back,  run  up  an  incline  to  the  upper  story  of  the  main 
building  where  they  drop  their  load  through  openings  between  the 
elevated  tracks  into  the  proper  bins  on  the  floor  of  the  story  be- 
neath. From  these  the  lumps  of  clay  are  shoveled  on  belt  conveyors 
which  bring  them  to  the  grinder  where  grog  of  broken  tile  for  the 
hard  blocks  or  saw-dust  for  the  porous  blocks,  is  added  to  the  mix- 
ture. After  this  stage  it  is  carried  upward  on  inclined  conveyors  to 
the  head  of  the  mixer,  shown  in  Figure  2.  Water  is  added  and  the 
ground  clay,  thus  rendered  plastic,  is  squeezed  by  a  powerful  auger 
through  the  die  and  comes  out  in  a  smooth,  continuous  stream  onto 
the  cutting  table,  shown  in  the  same  photograph.  It  is  Colgate's 
tooth-paste  tube  enlarged.  The  man  in  the  photograph  with  his 
hand  on  the  cutter,  forces  the  cross  wires  back  and  forth  at  right 

23 


24  TILE-MAKING 

angles  to  the  stream,  cutting  it  into  blocks  the  same  shape  as  the 
finished  product.  The  man  with  the  jaw  and  the  man  with  the 
smile  take  the  blocks  off  and  load  them  on  the  three-shelved  car,  a 
good  picture  of  which  is  shown  in  Figure  3.  This  car  has  traveled 
some  little  distance  from  the  die,  and  the  clay  blocks,  not  yet  hard 
enough  to  stand  erect  in  the  kilns  when  piled  high,  are  about  to  be 
run  into  long  drying  compartments  where  blasts  of  hot  air  harden 
them  to  stand  the  strain  of  pihng  in  the  kiln.  Burning,  the  most 
interesting  part  of  the  whole  process,  is  about  to  take  place  in 
Figure  4,  where  a  car  load  of  dried  blocks  is  just  entering  a  kiln, 
there  to  be  piled  from  the  floor  to  the  top  of  the  dome,  with  the 
cores  vertical,  as  illustrated  in  Figure  5,  and  then  burned  into  tile. 

I  will  go  back  over  the  whole  process  to  show  how  automatic, 
labor-saving  and  consecutive  it  is.  The  course  of  the  clay  has  been 
in  a  straight  line  from  pit  to  kiln.  It  has  been  handled  once  when 
it  was  mined  and  loaded  on  the  car,  a  second  time  when  it  was 
shoveled  on  the  belt  conveyor  to  the  grinder,  a  third  time  when  it 
was  shaped  on  the  cutting  table  and  put  on  the  drying  car,  and  a 
fourth  time  when  it  was  piled  in  the  kiln;  only  four  times  in  all. 
Every  step  has  been  straight  forward,  most  of  the  labor  unskilled, 
and  not  a  process  but  which  handles  materials  in  big  quantities. 

The  kilns,  most  of  which  are  down  draft,  are  heated  to  such 
a  temperature  that  to  one  looking  through  the  little  peep-holes, 
the  inside  seems  almost  white.  The  burning  causes  a  shrinkage 
of  an  inch  to  the  foot  in  the  clay.  The  kilns  shown  in  the  illustra- 
tions are  the  isolated  kind.  Another  type  I  noticed  consisted  of  a 
series  of  kilns  connecting  in  a  circle  with  a  floor  above,  on  which 
is  a  supply  of  coal,  and  the  fire  dragon  is  made  to  crawl  from 
kiln  to  kiln  by  dumping  its  fuel  food  before  it.  There  are  so  many 
of  these  kilns  that  the  first  is  cooled,  emptied  and  refilled  before 
the  flame  has  got  around  to  it  again,  and  this  flaming  cycle  never 
ceases.  The  burned  block,  now  terra-cotta  tile,  is  taken  out  of  the 
kiln  and  follows  a  straight  hne  for  dehvery  by  land  or  water,  into 
the  cars  shown  in  Figure  6,  or  the  hghters  in  Figure  7.  Figure  6 
shows  how  the  stock  on  hand  is  piled,  as  well  as  a  distant  view  of 


25 


FIG.  1.   THE  CLAT  PIT. 


FIG.  6.   FOR  SHIPMENT  BY  RAIL. 


26 


FIG.    2.      WHERE    THE    CLAY    STREAM    IS    CUT    INTO    BLOCKS. 


FIGS.    3   and   4.      WHERE   THE   CLAY   BLOCK   IS   DKIKD   AND   BURNED. 


27 


FIG.    5.      AFTER    FIRING 


FIG.    7.      SHIPMENT    BY   WATER. 


28 


TILE-MAKING  29 

the  kilns.  Another  picture  shows  a  comprehensive  view  of  the 
whole  factory  taken  from  a  water-covered  clay  pit. 

The  thing  that  impressed  me  particularly  about  the  manufac- 
ture of  hollow- tile  was  its  simplicity.  Practically  nothing  is  added 
to  the  clay  from  start  to  finish.  All  the  steps  of  the  process  are 
simple  in  themselves,  absolutely  straight  forward,  with  little  wasted 
energy.  It  is  easy  enough  to  believe  that  anything  which  should 
interrupt  this  orderly  procession  would  add  a  tremendous  percent- 
age to  the  cost  of  every  block.  On  the  other  hand,  some  features 
of  the  process  seemed  so  crude  that  I  believe  brains  and  machines 
could  do  the  work  of  many  men. 

Tile-making  ought  to  appeal  to  every  one  with  any  of  the 
child  left  in  him.  It  is  machine-made  mud  pies.  No  one  can  handle 
plastic  clay  without  modeling  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Bible 
intimates  that  it  was  a  desire  to  model  something  distinctly  novel 
out  of  clay  that  started  the  human  race  "in  the  beginning." 


CAPRI    FROM    THE    MEDITERRANEAN. 


AN   ARCHED   SIDEWALK   AT   RAVELLO.      STUCCO   TONED   WITH   SUXSHIXE. 


31 


THE    VILLA    .MEDICI     AT    RO.ME.      A    STUCCO    COVERED    BUILDING    ALTOGETHER    LOVELY. 


THE    VILLA    BORGHESl     IS    SUPU'ASSED    ONLY    BY    I'ERFECTION. 


32 


CHAPTER  II 

Old  World    Stucco. 

THE  first  hollow-tile  houses  were  always  stucco- covered,  and 
since  they  might  follow  nearly  all  of  the  older  stuccoed 
architecture,  they  sometimes  looked  for  precedent  to  the 
white  houses  of  the  Spanish  Renaissance.  I  have  illustrated  the 
Alhambra  and  its  gardens  and  an  interior  court  whose  pool  reflects 
the  white  arcade.  On  native  soil  are  the  Capistrano  Mission  and 
San  Diego,  which  hark  back  to  Spanish  relatives  and  hand  down 
an  heredity  of  Spanish  beauty.  In  these  Mission  buildings,  as 
with  the  senoritas,  the  light  and  dark  are  tellingly  contrasted. 

Italy  contributes  far  the  most  studied  stucco,  for  here  they 
use  it  in  the  treatment  of  the  most  monumental  buildings,  whence 
Italian  examples  are  our  inspirations  rather  than  our  copy-books. 
Capri  is  shown,  colored  in  soft  tones  and  as  softly  mirrored  in  the 
Mediterranean.  Far  above  the  water  and  looking  seaward  over 
Capri,  Ravello  stands,  a  lovely  rival.  Its  arcaded  street  leads  our 
imagination  on  to  Rome  where  the  villas  of  Medici  and  Borghesi 
are  the  Mecca  of  our  quest  for  plastic  beauty.  There  is  a  charming 
loggia  in  the  gardens  of  the  Vatican,  and  at  Florence  a  domed 
church  with  a  perfect  porch. 

Germany  shows  wonderful  personality  in  her  treatment  of 
skyline  and  roof,  along  with  clever  ways  of  tooling  stucco  surfaces. 
The  old  town  of  Ulm  is  shown  from  the  Danube  in  the  first  picture, 
and  below  it  a  charming  street  scene,  doubly  told  by  its  reflection  in 
the  water.  Plain  stucco  surfaces,  half  timber,  roofs  and  gables 
here  co-operate.  Another  scene  on  a  winding  street,  a  charming 
habitated  bridge,  and  we  are  through  with  Ulm  for  Strassburg, 
whose  architecture  is  so  quaint  and  free  that  we  are  tempted  to 
forget  the  stucco  in  devotion  to  its  general  charm.    When  we  con- 

33 


34  OLD     WORLD    STUCCO 

fine  attention  to  it  there  is  revealed  a  very  skillful  handling  of  the 
plaster,  and  picturesqueness  in  its  combination  with  roofs  and 
timbered  surfaces. 

The  French  examples,  one  at  Chartres,  "La  liaison  du  Sau- 
mon,"  and  an  old  house  near  the  Cathedral  at  Rouen,  are  worthy 
inspii'ations.  The  most  dashing  in  composition,  so  startling  as  to 
seem  Hke  one  of  our  own  well-beloved  perspectives,  is  the  Church 
and  House  of  the  Pages  of  Francis  I.  at  Chenonceau.  The  ma- 
terials here  are  stone,  rubble  and  cut,  interspersed  with  stucco  wall. 
A  bold  stroke  is  the  winding  stair  at  Chartres,  dark-timbered  and 
set  in  a  foil  of  white.  Two  scenes  are  chosen  from  Beauvais.  One 
is  a  street,  full  of  interest,  in  the  Rue  Sainte  Catherine,  by  the 
Cathedral  of  Saint  Rombaut  at  Malines. 

But  when  all  is  said  and  done,  it  is  to  England  we  Anglo- 
Saxons  turn  for  plaster  houses,  best-liked  and  most  transplantable. 
Chiddingstone  is  introduced  with  four  scenes  worthy  of  any  urban 
architecture.  "The  Crossings,"  at  Letchworth,  once  visited  by  a 
friend  of  mine,  has  served  him  as  inspiration  for  a  successful  stucco 
house.  Cockington  Village  for  picturesqueness  in  roof  and  wall  we 
may  not  hope  to  equal. 

I  have  sifted  over  a  drawerful  of  foreign  buildings  for  these 
few  pictures.  You  may  have  many  of  those  I  couldn't  use  for 
want  of  space.  But  even  these  pages  may  well  inspire  many  a 
native  house.  Call  up  reminiscences  of  your  travels,  for  you  may 
have  seen  these  very  places.  Translate  them  into  our  finer  con- 
struction and  transplant  them  to  our  fairer  soil.  We  are  leaders 
in  invention  and  adaptability.  Let  it  be  said  that  in  its  years 
alone  Europe  presents  the  insurmountable.  The  dress  of  our  new 
buildings  need  not  be  Hke  Eve's,  extemporaneous,  but  cut  after 
patterns  from  the  good  old  fashion-books  of  Europe,  selected  from 
the  vantage  point  of  our  age-long  perspective  to  meet  the  needs 
of  now. 


o 

<! 

7i> 


'  o 


ULM    FROM    THE    BLUE    DANUBE.       A    CITY   OF   LIGHT. 


ULM    FROM    ITS    STREETS.       STUCCO    IN    VARIED    DETAIL. 


36 


IBC: 


rLM    FROM    ANOTHER    STREET.       TEUTONIC    ROOFS    AND    PLASTER    WALLS. 


AFTER    ULM,    FOREST    HILLS    GARDENS? 


Z7 


THE    STRASSBURG    ARCHITECT    LOVES    XO    VIGNOLA   LIKE    HIMSELF. 


BEAUTY    LOOKS    OUT    ON    LOVELINESS."      CAPRI    FROM    AMALFI. 


3S 


Via 
■-« 

no 


« 
0< 

a" 

Zot 

a 

'J 

•J 


39 


THE    MAISOX    DU    SAUMON    AT    CHARTRES.        STUCCO    PICTURESQUE    AND    RULELESS. 


AT    K(,iLt;N.      .srnCO,    AGE   AND   NATURE. 


40 


HLKfil     AXli     IHE    Hul'-Sii    oF    THE    PAGES    OF    FRANCiS    I.    AT    CHENOXCEAU. 
NO  RULE   COULD    BETTER    ITS    ACCIDEXTAL   COMPOSITION 


AX    OLD    FARM    HOUSE    IN    EXCI.AXD. 


41 


FULL.   OF    PROPHESY    OF    TRANSPLANTATION. 


THE    FORGE,    WHERE    NOTHING   IS    TOO    SMALL    FOR   CHARM. 
CHIDDINGSTONE.     ENGLAND. 


42 


CHAPTER  III 

About  Construction. 

WE  need  not  greatly  concern  ourselves  in  a  tile  book  with 
the  carpenter,  the  plumber,  or  the  electrician.  The  car- 
penter does  not  like  our  type  of  work  anyway,  because 
it  reduces  the  output  of  his  tinder-box  factory.  It  is  about  the 
mason  that  this  chapter  centers. 

One  of  the  first  men  you  will  meet  will  be  the  man  who  digs 
the  cellar,  and  his  duties  are  obvious.  Where  is  he  going  to  put 
the  dirt?  That's  an  important  question.  Have  him  put  it  where 
it  will  stay  put.  If  you  don't  it  is  out  of  your  pocket  that  the 
cost  of  moving  it  will  come.  When  he  is  through  you  cannot  have 
too  much  observation  directed  to  the  hole  he  leaves,  for  he  may  be 
the  grave-digger  for  the  corpse  of  your  content.  Look  out  for 
water!  It  has  done  more  harm  at  the  foot  of  foundations  than 
anything  else.  Now  it  is  easy  to  correct  excess  of  water  even  in 
a  water-tight  and  water-holding  soil,  for  a  drain  properly  placed 
will  lead  it  off.  But  when  undrained  walls  are  up,  the  difficulty 
increases  tenfold,  and  the  tendency  to  inertia  in  the  bones  of  every 
one  of  us  argues  to  let  matters  stand  just  as  they  are  in  spite  of  a 
frog  pond  in  the  cellar. 

When  the  concrete  work  is  started  you  are  in  the  hands  of  the 
contractor,  for  it's  as  hard  to  make  good  concrete  as  to  keep  good 
resolutions,  and  as  easy  to  make  bad  concrete  as  to  break  them. 
It  is  absolutely  necessary  to  count  on  the  honesty  and  ability  of  the 
contractor  and  his  satisfaction  with  his  contract,  for  right  here  the 
matter  of  the  contract  comes  up. 

The  competitive-bidding  method  by  which  the  builder  is  usually 
selected  is  full  of  evils.  On  carefully  prepared  plans  and  specifi- 
cations it  is  usual  for  bids  to  vary  more  than  twenty  per  cent.,  which 

43 


44  ABOUT    CONSTRUCTION 

is  far  greater  than  the  profit  which  any  bidder  has  figured.  It  is 
therefore  impossible  to  believe  that  this  method  is  free  from  the 
fatal  fault  of  guessing.  The  work  properly  done  is  bound  to  cost 
a  certain  sum  of  money.  There  is  no  guess  about  that,  but  no  two 
bidders  have  the  same  opinion  as  to  what  this  sum  will  be.  The 
average  owner  thinks  that  contracting  for  a  house  is  like  buying  a 
jack  knife,  and  expects  to  get  the  highest  guesser's  quality  at  the 
lowest  guesser's  price.  Unlike  the  jack  knife  deal  it  is  only  too 
easy  to  get  a  house  under  contract  for  less  money  than  it  will  take 
to  build  it.  and  since  the  house-building  contractor  is  seldom  able 
to  stand  any  real  loss,  and  although  he  poses  as  a  principal  is 
really  fitted  only  to  be  an  agent,  when  the  crash  comes  the 
owner  may  pay  twice  for  his  jack  knife.  Bonding  the  contractor 
is  some  protection,  and  is  valuable  insurance.  It  is  as  good  nerve- 
protection  as  hollow- tile  is  fire-protection,  and  just  as  necessary. 
The  fatalities  among  too-low- contractors  overshadow  the  fire- 
hazard.  But  before  the  company  on  his  bond  will  undertake  to 
complete  your  house  the  contractor  must  have  gone  into  bank- 
ruptcy and  the  ghost  of  a  bankrupt  builder  is  a  dull  guest  at  a 
house-warming.  Therefore,  don't  take  the  lowest  bidder,  but  the 
best  builder. 

Cement  for  concrete  is  next  to  be  considered.  Pray  over  it; 
that's  all  you  can  do.  It  is  a  mouse-colored  powder,  and  all  cements 
look  as  much  alike  to  the  layman  as  mice  to  the  ladies.  Then  see 
that  the  bags  have  a  well-known  name  on  them.  Sand,  to  be  good, 
must  be  clean.  Press  it  in  your  hand  to  see  if  it  soils  your  fingers. 
Stone  is  easy  to  pass  on,  but  its  substitute,  gravel,  is  full  of  insidious 
snares 0  Clay  in  it  will  stop  the  setting  of  cement.  Concrete  mixing 
has  lost  most  of  its  terrors  now-a-days,  because  of  the  general  use 
of  accurate  mechanical  devices.  In  earlier  days  when  the  god  of 
the  machine  was  of  Irish  or  Italian  extraction,  the  proportions 
often  varied  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  weight  of  the  ingredients.  Con- 
crete, well  made,  is  powerful;  ill  made,  is  dangerous.  Set  watch 
over  its  making  the  good  safeguards  Inspection  and  Intelligence. 

Tile  is  a  more  readily  determined  factor.     Its  color  often  is 


NO    WONDER    THEY    LIKE    TO    PAINT    IT. 


?i\m-- 


EVERY    HOUSE    IS    A    PICTURE    AND    I'AP.T    OF    A    PICTURE.       LET    THE    AMERICAN 
STREET    STRETCH    A   CANVAS   FOR    IT. 

CHIDDINGSTONE,     ENGLAND. 


45 


A    VILLAGE    OF    DOLL-HOUSES,     DONE    IN    STUCCO     AND     THATCH. 


NEARER   BY   THE   HOUSES   LOSE   NO   WHIT   OF   CHARM 
COCKINGTON.    ENGLAND. 


46 


ABOUT     CONSTRUCTION  47 

sufficient  indication  of  its  quality.  Weakness  is  usually  due  to 
cracked  blocks  which  are  easily  detected  and  eliminated. 

The  part  of  the  wall  on  which  the  wooden  floor  beams  rest 
would  seem,  at  first  thought,  to  be  the  weakest  part,  until  one  sees 
the  tile  plates  which  cover  the  wall  and  distribute  the  load  coming 
from  the  beam-end  over  the  whole  block.  When  the  floors  are  to 
be  constructed  fireproof,  the  first  method  used  was  the  formation 
of  beams  by  pouring  concrete  over  metal  rods  placed  in  troughs 
between  rows  of  tile  fillers.  This  has  been  improved  by  schemes 
for  using  isolated  blocks  as  a  means  of  forming  a  gridiron  of  cross- 
mg  concrete  beams  and  is  of  such  interest  that  I  have  devoted  a 
later  chapter  to  its  consideration.  The  tile  and  concrete  floor  must 
be  supported  on  a  false  staging  until  it  has  set  and  acquired  full 
strength.  Even  then  a  part  of  the  centering  is  left  for  some  little 
time. 

Efflorescence  sometimes  shows  on  the  inside  of  tile  walls,  dis- 
coloring the  plaster  as  would  dampness.  To  prevent  this  you  will 
often  see  the  mason  covering  the  inside  of  the  wall  with  a  black, 
sticky  paint  before  the  plastering  begins.  The  wall  is  usually  made 
of  single  blocks  running  clear  through,  and  since  the  blocks  vary  a 
little  in  thickness  both  the  exterior  stucco  and  the  interior  plaster 
must  be  of  generous  thickness  to  level  up  all  inequalities.  If  this  is 
not  done  the  inequalities  will  not  show  plainly  until  the  wood  work 
is  applied,  but  then  they  will  be  painfully  evident. 

The  hardness  of  masonry  floors  presents  to  the  electrician, 
plumber  and  steam-fitter  difficulties  which  they  have  not  encount- 
ered in  working  with  pierceable  wooden  beams.  To  provide  space 
for  their  pipes,  shallow  wooden  strips  are  laid  on  top  of  the  con- 
structive slab  and,  after  the  pipes  are  in  place,  cinder  concrete  is 
filled  in  between  them  and  the  floor  nailed  to  the  wood.  In  some 
instances  the  wooden  floor  is  omitted  and  a  plastic  floor  is  applied 
in  its  place.  I  believe  that  this  is  the  thing  to  which  we  are  finally 
coming  with  advance  in  fireproofing  methods.  Granulated  cork 
forms  an  excellent  binder  for  cement  and  I  submit  that  this  mix- 
ture will  some  day  be  widely  used  as  a  flooring  over  masonry  con- 


48  ABOUT    CONSTRUCTION 

struction.  Cork  has  many  of  the  qualities  lacking  or  opposed  in 
cement;  it  is  warm  to  the  touch,  holds  nails,  is  waterproof  and 
resilient.  While  this  book  is  being  printed  I  am  going  to  experi- 
ment with  it. 

Other  materials  and  work  are  influenced  by  fireproof  construc- 
tion, and  I  offer  suggestions  which  may  prove  of  assistance  in 
understanding  them. 

The  carpenter  provides  for  his  nailing  by  plugging  the  walls 
with  wood  or  directing  the  mason  to  lay  porous  tile  blocks  at  the 
points  where  trim,  base,  shelves,  wainscots  or  any  woodwork  must 
be  secured.  He  is  careful  not  to  pierce  his  outside  walls  with 
brackets  and  other  wooden  decorative  features,  as  they  are  sure  to 
cause  leaks. 

When  the  carpenter  sets  up  the  temporary  forms  for  floors, 
he  crowns  them  in  the  center  and  securely  braces  them  to  prevent 
the  dead  load  of  the  floor  construction  and  the  weight  of  the  work- 
men walking  about  on  the  floor  before  it  has  set,  from  causing  a  sag 
in  the  forms  which  will  be  reproduced  in  the  finished  concrete  beams. 
He  is  especially  careful  not  to  remove  the  girder  forms  too  soon, 
as  the  shear-resisting  strength  of  concrete  develops  more  slowly 
than  its  compressive  strength.  Windows  and  doors  are  carefully 
detailed  to  reduce  the  chances  of  leakage  at  these  vulnerable  points. 

Wood  will  always  shrink  away  from  concrete,  and  this  fact  has 
to  be  taken  seriously  into  account.  In  general,  too  much  emphasis 
cannot  be  laid  on  extreme  care  and  thoroughness  wherever  masonry 
and  woodwork  come  in  contact. 

The  sheet  metal  worker  must  provide  carefully  against  leak- 
age, as  water  is  the  greatest  enemy  of  tile  construction.  Metal 
protection  against  leakage,  called  flashing,  is  difficult  on  account  of 
the  large  size  of  the  tile  compared  to  the  brick  to  which  the  work- 
man is  accustomed.  Cap-flashing  should  be  built  into  the  tile-work 
as  it  goes  up,  and  every  architect  knows  what  a  difficult  thing  it  is 
to  get  this  done,  because  the  sheet  metal  man  is  not  permanently 
on  the  job  at  that  stage  of  the  operation.  Heating,  lighting  and 
plumbing  involve  the  same  difficulties,  those  of  cutting  the  walls 


49 


50 


51 


52 


ABOUT    CONSTRUCTION  58 

and  crossing  the  pipes  on  the  floors.  Nothing  is  so  heartbreaking 
as  to  see  a  carefully  erected  tile  wall  cut  all  to  pieces  by  these  three 
trades.  Such  cutting  may  seriously  weaken  the  structure,  and  one 
is  tempted  to  lay  down  the  general  rule,  however  radical,  that  all 
vertical  heating  and  plumbing  pipes  must  be  exposed  or  put  in 
chases  provided  in  the  wall  as  it  is  built.  If  the  walls  must  be  cut, 
it  is  the  business  of  your  architect  to  consult  with  the  sub-contractors 
and  work  out  the  places  where  the  cutting  will  do  the  least  struc- 
tural damage.  The  horizontal  pipes  are  apt  to  be  crossed  on  top  of 
the  floor  slabs  and  greatly  increase  the  amount  of  cinder  fill  neces- 
sary to  cover  them.  Heating  pipes  that  run  covered  in  concrete 
should  have  loose  sleeves  to  allow  for  their  expansion  and  contrac- 
tion. If  the  electrician,  plumber  and  heater  provide  rough  piping 
plans,  all  difficulties  may  be  avoided,  and  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
averted.  It  may  be  remarked  here  that  the  heating  contractor  may 
figure  less  heat  loss  through  hollow-tile  walls  than  in  any  other 
known  construction. 

I  have  now  given  you  a  few  ideas  on  the  construction  of  tile 
houses  of  the  stucco  type,  and  will  here  let  the  matter  rest  until 
we  have  taken  up  the  subject  of  Texture-Tile.  Enough  has  been 
written  to  give  a  little  insight  into  the  methods  which  enter  into  the 
construction  of  your  unburnable  home. 


54 


House  for  Mr.  J.  J.  Adams. 


BUILDING    WALLS    OF   HOLLOW-TILE. 


55 


's     ft 

H 
m 

< 

H 
H 


56 


CHAPTER  IV 

Counting  the  Cost. 

THAT  no  man  starts  to  build  without  first  counting  the  cost 
is  as  true  as  gospel.  The  first  question  which  a  chent  raises 
and  the  hardest  to  answer  is  this  question  of  counting  the 
cost.  Because  of  the  number  of  items  involved  and  the  great 
variation  in  cost  of  these  and  of  labor  in  different  localities,  the 
final  cost  until  a  contract  is  signed  can  be  no  more  than  an  approxi- 
mation. Most  of  the  disagreements,  broken  hearts  and  dead-broke 
owners  have  resulted  from  lack  of  proper  information  on  this  all 
important  truth.  I  suggest,  therefore,  that  each  owner  be  his  own 
approximate  estimator  and  I  will  give  him  a  rule-of -thumb  to  use 
in  making  estimates,  and  the  illustrations  in  this  book  will  show 
him  what  he  will  get  for  his  money. 

The  safest  way  to  estimate  the  cost  of  a  building,  short  of  the 
contractor's  method  of  actual  cost  of  materials  and  labor,  is  to 
figure  its  cubic  contents  and  multiply  the  result  by  a  price  per  cubic 
foot  determined  by  averaging  the  cost  of  a  large  number  of  houses 
of  the  same  particular  class.  You  go  about  cubing  a  building  in 
this  way:  Get  the  floor  area  of  each  section  of  the  building  where 
different  sections  vary  in  height,  and  multiply  this  square  foot  re- 
sult by  the  distance  from  the  bottom  of  the  cellar  to  that  point, 
usually  half-way  up  the  gable,  which  would  account  for  the  full 
contents  of  the  cellar,  floors  and  attic.  This  height  is  thirty-three 
feet  in  the  average  two  story,  cellar  and  attic  building.  This  cubage 
should  include  all  porches  measured  from  the  bottom  of  their  foun- 
dations. One  may  try  this  out  for  practice  on  the  working  drawings 
of  the  Texture-Tile  house  in  the  later  pages  of  this  book. 

57 


58 


COUNTING    THE    COST 


Applying  these  rules  to  some  of  the  buildings  which  form  our 
illustrations,  we  have  compiled  the  following  table  which  will  help 
the  man  who  wants  to  cut  his  garments  according  to  his  cloth. 

Cost  per 
Owner.         Location.                                        Construction.                                   cubic  foot. 
Gambee,       Englewood,  N.  J.         Texture-Tile  walls,  frame  floors  and  roof...       .171 
Marshall,     Tenafly,  N.  J.               Hollow-Tile  walls,  frame  floors  and  roof...       .163 
Atwood,       Tenafly,  N.  J.               Texture-Tile  walls,  frame  floors  and  roof...       .188 
Lyon,            Englewood,  N.  J.         Texture-Tile  walls,  frame  floors  and  roof...       .18 
Squires,        Plainfield,  N.  J.          Texture-Tile  walls,  floors  and  roofs  part  ma- 
sonry and  part  frame 20 

Average  cost  $6739,  average  cubage  37,441,  average  cost  per  cubic  foot 18 

Cost  per 
Owner.  Location.  Construction.  cubic  foot. 

Page,  Orange,  N.  J.  Hollow- Tile  walls,  masonry  floors,  stairs  and 

partitions,  asbestos  shingle  roof 199 

Page,  Orange,  N.  J.  Same  construction   20 

Clark,  Newark,  N.  J.  Hollow-Tile  walls,  masonry  floors  and  par- 
titions, slate  roof  18 

O'Malley,  Newark,  N.  J.  Hollow-Tile  walls,  masonry  floors  and  parti- 
tions,  tile   roof    26 

Lough,  New  York  City.  Hollow-Tile  walls,  fireproof  floors,  part  ma- 
sonry and  part  frame  partitions,  frame 
roof   19 

Average  cost  $9167.50,  average  cubage  45,858,  average  cost  per  cubic  foot 20 

The  tables  show  that  fireproof  floors  add  ten  per  cent,  to  the 
first  cost  of  a  house.  You  can  arrive  at  the  same  result  in  a  different 
way.  Wood  floor-beam  construction  costs  ten  cents  a  square  foot 
of  floor  surface  and  fireproof  floors  about  thirty-five,  a  difference  of 
twenty-five  cents  for  every  foot  of  floor  in  the  building.  The 
average  cost  of  the  non-fireproof  buildings  in  the  list  is  about  seven 
thousand  dollars,  and  they  would  cost  if  fireproof,  seven  thousand 
seven  hundred  by  the  application  of  the  second  table  for  building 
with  fireproof  floors.  Their  floor  areas  average  three  thousand 
feet,  which  at  twenty-five  cents  a  foot  would  come  to  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars,  corresponding  very  closely  to  the  extra  cost  indi- 
cated by  the  table. 

The  owner  must  bear  in  mind  a  further  fact.    Your  architect 
is  not  and  should  not  be  an  estimator.    The  range  of  his  practice 


FROM    CAXTEKBURY    ON    KIVEH    STOUlt.       STUCCO    WALLS    DESIUXED    WITH    TIMBER 
AND    CASEMENTS.    BRIGHTENED    WITH    FLOWERS. 


THE    WHITE    ENTRANCE    TO    HAMPTON    COURT. 


59 


60 


COUNTING    THE    COST  61 

covers  so  much  other  work  on  buildings  of  so  many  kinds  that  it  is 
beyond  his  power  to  tell  accurately  what  each  would  cost.  The 
builder's  training  is  along  estimating  lines  and  his  existence  depends 
on  his  ability  to  work  out  accurate  costs.  It  is  no  disgrace  to  the 
architect  that  he  is  not  a  builder  and  has  not  the  builder's  knowledge, 
but  the  client  usually  thinks  he  ought  to  be  as  versatile  as  a  janitor. 
If  he  devoted  his  time  to  becoming  a  good  estimator  he  wouldn't 
have  any  left  to  be  a  good  designer.  He  is  your  proper  agent  for 
reducing  your  house  desires  to  paper  and  of  finding  from  experts 
what  they  will  cost.  If  he  is  not  made  responsible  for  the  cost  when 
given  the  desires  and  vice  versa,  he  will  be  most  valuable  to  you  in 
cutting  your  garment  according  to  your  cloth.  In  the  matter  of 
costs,  don't  try  to  make  him  work  the  miracle  of  getting  your 
fixed  desires  within  your  fixed  price.  The  days  of  miracles  are 
past. 


^5ECO^;I>     TLOOIO    PLXW. 


THE    HOUSE    OF   MR.    KENDALL    BANNING. 


riLST     TLOOV    '1.*>N 


.  SCC0^45  rLOO»_?lA.M. 


THE    HOUSE    AT    BOGOTA.    N.    J. 


62 


1 


From  "Building  Progress."  Squires  &   H'yiikoop.  Architects. 

AX    EXPOSITION    OF    VARIOUS    USES    FOR    STUCCO-COVERED    HOLLOW-TILE. 


Barnard  &  Wilder,  Architects. 
A    WELL    PLACED    TILE    HOUSE    AT    RIVERSIDE,    CONN. 

(A 


Squires  &   Wynkoop,  Architects. 

A    COTTAGE    AT    INTERLAKEN.    N.    J.       ONE    OF    THE    FIRST    TILE    HOUSES 

IN    THE    EAST 


Squires  &   Wynkoop,  Architects. 

THE   FIRST   TERRA  COTTA  HOUSE  IN  NEW  YORK.       DR.    ROUGH'S  HOME   AT  NEW  YORK 

UNIVERSITY. 


64 


Squires  &   Wynkoop,  Architects. 


A    HOUSE    DESIGNED    FOR    MR.     KENDALL    BANNING,     AFTER    WALNUT-TREE    FARM 

HOUSE    IN    ENGLAND.  ^^'^cj     rAiiivi 


I'F^iSB^ 


T^X;*  '^ .  I 


A    HOUSE     AT     BOGOTA.     N.     X.     GIVING    ENGLISH    ARCHITECTURE    IN    TERMS    OF 
AMERICAN   CONSTRUCTION. 


65 


66 


CHAPTER  V 

The  History  of  the  Use  of  Hollow- 
Tile  for  Houses. 

THE  previous  illustrations  have  shown  foreign  applications 
of  plaster  to  various  forms  of  masonry  and  are  examples 
from  which  designers  of  stucco  houses  in  America  have 
freely  drawn.  Many  modern  conceptions  are  unworthy  their  solid, 
foreign  precedents.  The  one  American  development  in  fireproof 
construction  which  marks  an  advance  over  foreign  building  is  not 
the  outer  wall  so  much  as  it  is  the  masonry  floor.  The  outer  walls 
in  both  old  and  new  are  equally  fireproof.  The  American  hollow- 
tile,  so  long  as  it  is  stucco  covered,  is  similar  in  appearance  and  no 
more  fireproof  than  the  foreign  wall  of  sohd  masonry.  It  was  the 
introduction  of  fireproof  floors,  and  sometimes  roofs,  which  marked 
our  first  real  forward  step  in  fireproof  progress.  A  simple  illus- 
tration of  the  relative  value  of  fireproof  floors  and  outside  walls  is 
this.  There  is  an  occupation,  half  work,  half  play,  called  "brand- 
ing" brushwood  fires  which  country  boys  are  often  called  to  do. 
These  fires,  however  fierce,  need  constant  care  to  insure  complete 
burning  of  all  the  brush.  Starting  at  the  bottom  of  the  pile,  the 
flames  heat  the  wood  above  them  and  savagely  ascend,  consuming 
everything  in  their  upward  path.  But  the  outer  edges  of  the  pile 
are  constantly  dying  out  and  the  burned-off  brands  must  be  thrown 
back  on  top  of  the  flame.  In  other  words,  the  tendency  of  flame 
to  spread  upward  is  far  greater  than  its  tendency  to  spread 
outward  because  the  heated  air  rises  and  cooks  the  food  for  the 
following  fire.  Wooden  floors  resting  on  fireproof  waUs  offer  a 
terrible  temptation  to  fire  which  is  but  following  its  very  nature 
to  burn  whatever  is  placed  above  it.  To  oppose  this  law  horizontal 
rather  than  vertical  surfaces  should  be  the  real  fire  bar.  The  fire- 
proof walls  are  well  enough  in  their  way,  but  foot  for  foot  give 

67 


68  HOLLOW-TILE    FOB    HOUSES 

infinitely  less  protection  than  fireproof  floors.  It  is  only  within  the 
last  few  years  that  this  phase  of  fireproof  house  construction  has 
been  appreciated. 

It  is  possible,  with  this  innovation,  to  build  a  home  absolutely 
unburnable,  so  far  as  its  structural  parts  are  concerned.  The  walls, 
floors,  door  and  window  frames,  and  even  the  roof,  may  be  made 
impregnable  against  fire.  The  contents  of  a  room — furniture,  up- 
holstery, bric-a-brac,  everything — may  be  consumed  and  yet  the 
next  room  be  untouched,  and  this  is  the  real  virtue  of  fireproof  con- 
struction, the  prevention  of  the  spread  of  flame,  especially  its 
upward  trend,  and  by  this  virtue  has  America  advanced  home- 
building  progress. 

As  might  well  be  expected,  the  pioneer  work  has  been  done 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  great  cities,  where  people  are  always  on 
the  lookout  for  something  better.  The  most  important  cities  are 
far  away  from  the  supply  of  wood  and  this  affords  a  powerful 
reason  for  the  use  of  fireproofing  materials,  for  the  freight  rate  on 
lumber  has  to  be  added  to  its  cost.  So  it  is  that  in  the  suburbs 
around  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Boston  indestructible  ma- 
terials are  most  widely  used. 

The  most  startling  manifestation  of  the  new  movement  is  Mr. 
Edison's  plan  to  have  "moulded"  homes  for  workingmen.  His 
scheme  is  to  build  a  set  of  moulds,  put  them  in  place,  and  pour  into 
them  the  liquid  mixture  of  rock,  sand  and  cement.  The  mixture 
once  in  place  and  presto,  change !  behold  your  house  of  rock !  The 
same  moulds  will  be  moved  on  to  the  next  lot,  and  another  house 
constructed  in  the  same  way.  Of  course  this  plan  would  not  leave 
much  room  for  originality,  since  every  house  in  a  line  would  be 
like  every  other.  Mr.  Edison's  purpose  in  suggesting  this  was  not 
an  aesthetic  but  a  practical  one — it  was  to  save  the  workingman's 
money. 

Now  it  is  agreed  among  experts  that  this  scheme  will  not  soon 
be  materialized.  There  are  certain  physical  difficulties,  due  to  the 
present  limitations  which  surround  concrete  construction,  which 
would,  until  overcome,  prevent  the  moulding  of  a  unit  house.    But 


si   t 

St 


69 


House  for  Mr.  J.  P.  Taylor,  Tenafly,  N.  J.  ."^quires  &  Wcndchack,  Architects. 

A    SHADOW-TEXTURED    ROOF    WITH    TRUNCATED,    TEUTONIC    GABLE. 


70 


HOLLOW-TILE    FOB    HOUSES 


71 


the  proposal  is  worthy  of  the  thought  the  inventor  has  spent  upon 
it,  even  if  it  does  nothing  but  stimulate  interest  in  fireproof  con- 
struction. Adaptations  of  the  idea  have  already  proved  practical 
and  there  are  many  concrete  houses — though  they  are  not  made  in 
the  Edison  style — and  there  are  many  more  houses  in  which  con- 
crete is  used  in  combination  with  other  materials. 

Hollow-tile  is  the  material  for  fireproof  construction  which  has 
made  the  greatest  advances.  Until  recent  years  it  was  employed 
almost  exclusively  as  a  metal  protecting  material,  pure  and  simple 
— that  is,  it  was  used  to  fireproof  the  steel  structural  parts  of  high 


HOrSE    FOR    MR.    .1.    J     ADAMS. 


buildings.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  tons  of  these  hollow  blocks 
are  used  in  skyscrapers.  It  was  found,  first  by  accident  and  then 
by  elaborate  tests,  that  hollow  terra-cotta  blocks  when  used  in  walls 
independent  of  other  materials  than  mortar,  would  support  greater 
weights  and  strains  than  could  ever  be  imposed  upon  them  in  houses. 
They  are  laid  into  walls  like  big  brick.  Engineers  have  devised 
methods  for  their  use  in  floors,  in  combination  with  concrete  beams ; 
and  they  are  also  used  in  roofs  in  the  same  manner.  They  possess 
the  advantage  over  ordinary  brick  of  having  weightless  hollow 
spaces  which  act  as  non-conductors  of  heat,  these  voids  being  cost- 


72 


HOLLOW-TILE     FOR     HOUSES 


less  as  well  as  useful.     In  the  architect's  hands  the  material  has 
been  most  successful,  and  I  am  going  to  tell  you  why  this  is  true. 

One  reason  is  that  the  plaster  houses  abroad  have  provided 
artistic  inspiration  for  plaster  covered  hollow-tile,  but  it  is  yet  to 
be  entirely  explained  why  the  construction  has  taken  so  strong  a 
hold  on  our  best  country  house  designers.  The  answer  to  this  may 
be  found  in  the  effect  on  design  of  its  structural  perfections.     A 


HOUSE   FOR   MR.    J.    P.    TAYLOR. 


building  with  masonry  outside  and  inside  walls  and  floors  and  roof 
is  a  masonry  cube  in  itself  and  practically  indestructible.  It  is 
hard  to  crush  an  ordinary  box.  If  this  box  is  made  up  internally  of 
a  lot  of  little  boxes  entirely  filling  it,  the  only  way  to  destroy  it  is  to 
burn  it  up.  A  fireproof  house  is  a  box  filled  with  little  boxes,  and 
you  can't  burn  a  fireproof  house.  Flame  has  no  terrors  for  it,  nor 
have  time  and  the  elements.  This  permanence  makes  the  design 
of  the  house  a  serious  and  important  matter.  Such  a  building  is  a 
monument,  a  thing  that  will  last  through  many  a  change  in  style 


House  for  Mr.  J.  P.  Taylor. 

HALF-TIMBER    PARALLELS    THE    TREE-TRUNKS    AND    A    TWENTY-DOLLAR    STONE 
WALL   PROVIDES   THE    CONTRASTING   LINE    NEEDED    TO   SATISFY 
THE    COMPOSITION. 


7Z 


Home  for  Mr.    ll'iu.    C.    Calkins.   Jr.,    Flu.diing,  N.    Y.  Frederick  Squires,  Architect. 

BRICK    USED    TO    ENLIVEN    STUCCO    SURFACES. 


74 


HOLLOW-TILE    FOR     HOUSES  75 

and  passing  fancy,  and  will  hold  its  own  as  a  design  only  by  in- 
trinsic worth.  Permanent  works  have  always  been  the  most  beauti- 
ful. It  is  then  true  that  the  knowledge  of  the  permanency  of 
masonry  adds  seriousness  to  its  conception  in  design  and  results  in 
simplicity  and  beauty  in  execution.  The  designer  grasps  eagerly 
at  the  opportunity  to  work  in  these  permanent  materials,  because 
he  knows  from  historic  examples  that  with  them  the  most  worthy 
results  may  be  obtained.  It  is  this  reason,  beside  foreign  precedent, 
on  account  of  which  designers  have  devoted  themselves  whole- 
heartedly to  hollow-tile. 

It  is  a  mooted  question  whether  this  masonry  construction  will 
result  in  an  entirely  new  style  of  house.  It  is  easy  to  borrow  from 
almost  every  style  and  adjust  to  it.  The  English  country  house, 
the  Georgian,  the  Italian  villa,  the  Spanish  patio,  all  the  white 
buildings  abroad,  have  served  for  suggestions.  The  feature  in  this 
construction  which  may  lead  us  away  from  all  precedent  and  tra- 
dition is  the  masonry  roof.  In  many  cases,  the  difficulty  of  design- 
ing a  masonry  roof  in  a  traditional  style  has  led  to  the  abandonment 
of  the  masonry  roof  and  the  retention  of  the  traditional  style. 
Sometimes  a  masonry  roof  has  been  designed  in  spite  of  its  diffi- 
culties and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  resulting  roof  does  not 
suggest  its  permanent  character.  The  characteristic  masonry  roof 
is  a  flat  roof.  Characteristic  design  of  fireproof  houses  with  a  flat 
roof  is  a  thing  not  yet  accomplished,  but  should  it  be  accomplished 
and  popularized,  there  would  be  created  immediately  a  new  style 
due  to  this  masonry  construction. 

There  are  many  kinds  of  buildings,  to  which  the  fireproof 
quality  of  terra-cotta  tile  is  even  more  important  than  it  is  in  the 
home.  In  the  first  instance  the  scheme  scrambled  from  the  sky- 
scrapers to  the  cottage,  overlooking  in  its  haste  its  intervening 
opportunities.  Now,  however,  its  fireproof  qualities  are  being 
called  into  play  in  the  school,  the  hospital,  the  hotel,  the  apartment 
and  the  factory.  In  all  these  buildings,  fireproofness  is  an  asset 
of  first  importance,  and  the  fire  hazard  is  multiplied  many  times 
over  its  danger  to  the  home.     It  is  with  a  feeling  of  considerable 


5ZCOND  rtOOJOf  LAN  •    >* 


rrK-ST   TLOOK-iL/^- 


PLANS  OF  THE   HOUSE   AT   SEA  GATE,   N.    T. 


76 


A     SK\  Si'JiAl'IM  ;     JU'M  ;.\i,'  i\\ 


House  at  Sea  Gate,  N.    Y.  Squires  &   U'yiikoop.  Architects. 

FIREPROOF  THE   SUMMER   COTTAGE   AGAINST  THE   FIRE   RISKS  OF  VACANCY! 

77 


■i 


Joy     JVIieeler    Dow,   Architect. 

IN    THE    BUILDING    OF     'BOW-MARCHIONESS"    THE    DESIGNER    HAS    LOST    NO    PART    OP 
THE    TRADITION    BY    WHICH    HE    WAS    INSPIRED. 


78 


*    Z 

<s      > 

5     O 

a 


79 


^^m  ^i^^HHi 

House  at  Greenwich,  Conn. 


Delano  &  Aldrich,  Architects. 


DETAILS     WHICH     EMPHASIZE     THE     MANIFOLD     ADVANTAGES     OF 
KNOWING    MORE    THAN     "YOUR    UNITED    STATES." 


HOLLOW-TILE    FOR    HOUSES  81 

content  that  a  mother  sees  her  children  go  to  a  fireproof  school.  It 
is  not  a  difficult  feat  to  convince  a  factory  owner  that  it  is  good 
business  to  insure  his  main  investment  of  machinery  and  stock  by 
means  of  the  small  extra  cost  of  a  fireproof  building.  He  prefers 
fire  prevention  to  insurance  collection.  It  is  in  these  buildings  also 
that  the  reduced  cost  of  upkeep  is  a  convincing  argument.  The 
requirements  of  the  layout  of  such  buildings  are  easily  met  in  hol- 
low-tile construction. 

Lest  this  discussion  prove  discursive,  I  am  going  to  pin  it  down 
to  realities  by  illustrating  with  photographs  and  drawings  of 
modern  houses,  the  points  which  I  have  tried  to  make.  The  first 
is  an  illustration  of  a  house  designed  purely  for  the  purpose  of 
illustrating  various  uses  of  hollow  tile.  Today  such  a  house  would 
not  be  the  last  word  in  this  construction,  but  when  it  was  designed 
some  few  years  ago,  such  questions  as  exposed  tile  and  flat  masonry 
roofs  had  not  become  insistent.  It  will  not  be  hard  to  find  its  prece- 
dent among  the  foreign  illustrations.  Its  simplicity  makes  it  easily 
eonstructible  in  tile. 

The  very  pioneer  in  the  East  was  the  DeVillaverde  house, 
which  is  the  first  photograph,  and  but  shortly  behind  in  time  of 
construction  was  the  Lough  house. 

The  thing  which  I  recall  most  clearly  about  these  early  houses 
was  the  financial  difficulties  in  which  the  builders  usually  found 
themselves  before  the  work  was  completed,  although  they  re- 
ceived more  money  for  them  than  would  be  necessary  to  finance 
their  construction  today.  These  men  had  the  right  idea  and  the 
courage  of  their  convictions,  but  met  the  fate  which  befell  the 
Englishmen  who  tried  to  tunnel  the  North  River  and  the  French- 
man who  started  to  join  the  oceans  at  Panama.  Although  they 
were  victims,  they  lacked  only  the  power,  not  the  courage  of  their 
convictions,  and  others,  less  originally  initiative,  won  the  battle  of 
their  starting.  Crowds  of  interested  spectators  used  to  watch  the 
construction  of  these  early  houses,  people  who  today  would  not 
stop  to  look  at  a  similar  operation,  so  often  have  they  seen  them. 

It  is  interesting  to  follow  the  steps  in  the  design  of  the  Bogota 


82  HOLLOW-TILE    FOB    HOUSES 

building.  The  half-tone  shows  the  Banning  house,  an  adaptation 
of  Walnut  Tree  Farm  House  in  England,  which  was  restudied,  as 
shown  in  the  photographs  of  the  completed  building.  Structural 
features  of  unusual  interest  are  the  treatments  of  the  ceilings  and 
floors.  Projecting  concrete  beams  were  cast  between  the  hollow 
tile  fillers  and  the  finished  floors  were  of  plastic  composition  with 
no  wood  covering  at  all.  I  believe  that  this  method  will  some  day 
come  into  its  own  in  the  general  use  of  a  combination  of  cork  and 
cement,  which  bonds  and  makes  a  warm  and  noiseless  floor.  This 
house  was  an  advanced  construction  in  the  day  of  its  building. 

The  house  at  Upper  Montclair,  N.  J.,  is  a  good  example  of 
the  extent  to  which  site  may  influence  plan.  At  the  foot  of  a  pali- 
sade and  itself  remarkably  elevated  and  overlooking  New  York 
in  the  far  distance,  this  building  was  elongated  in  plan  to  take 
advantage  both  of  the  view  and  the  contour  of  the  site.  Every 
room  looks  forward  to  New  York  and  back  to  its  garden  at  the 
mountain-foot.  An  interesting  constructive  feature  is  the  corbell- 
ing of  the  gables,  learned  from  Mr.  Joy  Wheeler  Dow.  I  always 
feel  when  looking  at  this  house  that  it  is  but  an  unobtrusive  incident 
in  a  well-staged  scene.  Where  you  can't  fight  you  had  better  fol- 
low. An  obtrusive  house  at  the  foot  of  this  rock-ribbed  crag 
would  be  only  fussy  in  its  indignation.  Such  an  unequal  contest 
between  the  stolid  and  the  stuccato  would  recall  Kipling's  lines : 

"For  the  Christian  riles  and  the  Aryan   smiles 
And  he  weareth  the  Christian  down." 

That  heathen  crag  could  smile  his  rocky  smile  over  and  around  the 
importunities  of  any  upstart  domicile  of  man  and  keep  on  smiling 
while  its  roof  tree  rotted,  but  the  right  kind  of  a  house  would  nestle 
at  its  feet  and  gain  protection  from  its  greatness,  just  as  this  house 
has  tried  to  do. 

"Made  in  Germany"  is  the  trade-mark  of  the  Tenafly  house. 
Even  the  stucco  tooling  is  Teutonic.  The  charm  of  the  house,  aside 
from  a  setting  among  straight  tree  trunks  which  parallel  its  half- 
timber,  is  the  happy  combination  of  its  colors.  The  roof  shows 
green  and  brown  with  a  "texture"'  about  which  you  will  hear  later. 


83 


S   O 


f  ■    M 

s    H 
■$   1-1 

(J  g 

05 

o 

H 


84 


HOLLOW-TILE    FOR     HOUSES  85 

Buff  stucco  and  natural-colored  cypress  fit  the  ischeme  of  the 
house  itself  and  its  surroundings. 

It  would  be  well  to  read  the  chapter  on  tile  decoration  of 
stucco  surfaces  before  looking  at  the  Calkins  house.  Rough  sur- 
faced brick  in  intricate  design  has  been  used  to  mark  the  openings 
and  to  elaborate  the  frieze.  Red  tile,  brown  brick,  grey  stucco  and 
tan  wood  are  the  palette  of  its  colors.  The  house  is  a  little  different 
from  anything  else  in  these  pages,  and  a  helpful  feature  is  the  big 
tree  standing  like  a  lofty  guard  above  it,  and  softening  too  rigid 
outlines  with  its  grateful  shade.  Character  in  plan  is  accomplished 
by  a  large  living-room  several  steps  lower  than  the  rest  of  the  first 
floor. 

Closeness  to  precedent  does  not  mark  its  neighboring  illus- 
tration, a  house  at  Seagate,  which  reminds  me  of  the  Dutchman's 
remark  about  a  "rather  mountainous  valley."  The  owner  wanted  a 
bungalow  but  he  wanted  it  three  stories  high.  The  building  pre- 
sents the  singular  spectacle  of  a  simple  roof  set  down  over  an 
irregular  plan  and  cut  off  regardless  at  its  intersection  with  the 
walls. 


86 


87 


.*^  t 


Home  of  Mr.   Winthrop,  Siosset,  L.  I. 


Delano  &  Aldrich,  Architects. 


THE    DESIGNERS    HAVE    ACCOMPLISHED    A    BIG.     WELL-MANNERED    HOME.       YOU    WILL. 

NOTICE    THAT    THERE     ARE    NO    DORMERS    AND    THAT    THE    HOUSE    IS    NOT 

ON   THE    HILL   TOP   BUT   PARALLELS   THE    SLOPE. 


Home  of  Mr.   Winthrop,  Siosset,  L.  I.  Delano  &  Aldrich,  Architects. 

IT'S  JUST   AS   PERFECT  NEAR   BY   AS   AT   A   DISTANCE. 


89 


House  of  Mr.  Thomas  H.  Kerr.  Albro  &  Lindeherg,  Architects. 

"A    PLACE    FOR    REFLECTION." 


90 


CHAPTER  VI 

Architects'  Tile   Houses. 

"T^HYSICIAN,  heal  thyself,"  might  be  the  title  of  this  chap- 
^  ter,  although  the  way  and  why  the  architect  doctors  his 
design  is  not  always  the  best  way  and  why.  I  have 
worked  for  several  who  are  high  in  their  profession,  and  it  is  curious 
that  no  one  of  these  men,  some  of  whom  were  capable  designers, 
spent  much  time  on  the  design  of  his  own  house,  although  each  gave 
careful  thought  to  its  construction.  Since  they  excel  in  these  it  is, 
therefore,  rather  toward  the  constructive  features  than  the  archi- 
tectural that  I  would  direct  your  attention  in  the  following  pages. 
Herein  have  architects  cured  building  ills. 

The  Wendehack  house  was  designed  after  a  most  careful 
study  of  individual  needs.  The  drawings  were  made  in  Rome 
where  their  designer  spent  many  months  of  a  stay  abroad.  The 
plan  is  nearly  ideal  for  a  house  of  its  size,  and  the  construction  also 
is  particularly  well  studied.  The  Walker  house  was  completed  by 
its  architect- owner,  and  is  as  well  constructed  as  it  is  obviously 
beautiful. 

Every  building  consists  in  its  final  analysis  of  uprights  resting 
on  the  earth,  supporting  floors  and  roofs,  and  filHng  between  these 
uprights,  to  keep  out  the  weather  and  to  surround  the  windows 
and  doors.  The  supports  may  always  be  regarded  as  posts.  Logic- 
ally, they  should  be  thicker  or  at  least  stronger  than  the  curtain 
walls,  but  in  most  instances,  in  order  to  avoid  breaks  in  the  wall 
surfaces,  the  piers  and  walls  are  made  of  a  uniform  thickness.  The 
scheme  of  permanent  tile  forms  here  comes  into  play  as  in  the 
Delano  house,  in  order  to  obtain  a  pier  and  a  curtain  wall  with 
strength  relative  to  their  respective  loads,  and  yet  maintain  a  flush 
wall  inside  and  out.    It  is  obvious  that  this  may  be  done  in  tile  walls 

91 


92  ARCHITECTS'     TILE    HOUSES 

by  grouting  the  piers  and  leaving  the  curtain  walls  hollow.  When 
a  floor  level  is  reached  it  is  obvious  that  there  should  be  some  way 
to  carry  the  part  of  the  floor  weight  which  comes  over  the  window 
and  door  openings  to  the  powerful  piers,  and  this  may  be  done  by 
a  U-shaped  continuous  wall  girder. 

These  U-shaped  lintel  and  wall  girder  troughs  may  be  either 
poured  full  of  concrete  on  the  ground  and  set  in  place  as  is  best 
practice  with  the  lintel,  or  set  in  the  wall  and  poured  in  place,  as 
is  best  done  with  the  wall  girder.  The  floor  load  will  then  have  a 
strong  continuous  support  irrespective  of  the  openings  under  it. 

It  is  the  limitations  of  tile  manufacturing  which  give  us  a 
hollow  building  block  with  the  physical  aspect  in  which  we  find  it 
at  the  building.  Were  it  not  for  the  manner  of  moulding  and 
burning  clay,  the  block  might  be  any  other  shape  then  cellular. 
Given,  then,  a  large  building  block  with  cells  running  in  one  direc- 
tion only  and  open  on  two  of  its  six  sides,  our  problem  is  to  make 
the  best  use  of  it  as  building  material.  It  would  seem  to  be  the 
best  way  to  lay  these  blocks  in  a  wall  on  their  closed  sides  so  as  to 
get  a  good  mortar  bed,  but  on  closer  observation  it  is  apparent 
that  by  so  doing  a  part  of  the  terra-cotta  would  be  resting  flat  and 
not  working  to  hold  up  the  weight  above.  The  block  must  have  its 
webs  vertical  in  order  to  be  entirely  onto  its  job.  But  when  set 
vertical  the  mortar  bed  must  be  on  the  webs  of  the  lower  block  and 
not  on  its  flat  side,  and  we  are,  therefore,  confronted  with  the 
difficult  feat  of  balancing  mortar  on  a  five-eighth-inch  web  and 
bedding  a  forty-pound  block  on  this  precarious  footing.  It  is 
apparent  that  unless  this  feat  is  successfully  performed  the  blocks 
will  come  in  contact  vertically  only  at  points  and  not  all  along  the 
webs,  and  that  not  all  of  the  webs  may  be  coimted  on  to  be  doing 
work.  This  causes  no  inconvenience  in  the  house  where  the  wall 
is  far  stronger  than  required  for  the  load,  but  it  becomes  a  problem 
to  be  taken  into  account  in  heavily  loaded  piers. 

Although  the  placing  of  the  blocks  in  the  wall  with  the  cores 
vertical  does  not  present  a  very  good  mortar  bed,  yet  it  invites  a 
far  more  powerful  construction  than  any  combination  of  mortared 


THK    l'l:uHLKAl    (jK    i:\Ki;V    IXCii    \\  A.S    .STIUIEU    AND    StjLXliLi. 


Howe  of  Mrs.  D.  F.   IVcndcUack. 

"MUT>TUM    IX    PARVO. 


Squires  &  ll'ciidchacl:.  Arcliitccts. 
AX    ARCHITECT'S    FIREPROOF    HOCSE. 

93 


WM.    ADAMS   DELANO'S   COUNTRY    PLACE    AT    SIOSSET,    L.    I. 


HE    HAS    COVERED     THE     TILE     WITH     STUCCO     HAND-MODELED     LIKE 
PARGED    STONE    WORK. 


94 


THE  COURT  OF  JtR.   1  n:  I.  A  xi  is   iPMsi;.       AX  .\];'i"i  s'i"s  A\iii:iv   AS  ^\i;i,i.  as  ax 

ARCHITECT'S. 


95 


Ho 
'"el 
Pi 


H 


Cn 
go 

oa 

Kg 

Cu  Eh 


OH 

O 

a  J 


96 


ARCHITECTS'     TILE     HOUSES  97 

units,  namely,  the  introduction  of  grouting  or  filling  with  liquid 
concrete.  Just  as  the  cores  must  be  vertical  in  the  process  of  manu- 
facture to  allow  the  fire  to  take  its  characteristic  vertical  course, 
so  the  cores  must  be  vertical  in  construction  work  to  let  the  liquid 
concrete  take  its  characteristic  downward  flow.  This  grouting 
makes  it  possible  to  count  on  the  strength  of  every  particle  of  tile. 
It  is,  of  course,  necessary''  to  design  the  webs  so  that  when  blocks  are 
placed  one  upon  another  with  the  joints  broken,  the  webs  and 
cores  will  correspond  and  the  vertical  channels  be  uninterrupted. 
I  have  noted  the  value  of  the  air-space  in  the  hollow  wall  as  a  non- 
conductor of  changes  in  temperature,  in  other  words,  its  furring 
value.  Now,  it  would  seem  that  I  am  advocating  the  destruction 
of  this  furring  in  order  to  obtain  greater  structural  strength,  but  it 
is  easy  to  retain  both  in  the  same  wall,  although  in  general  practice, 
the  advocates  of  each  are  apt  to  neglect  or  omit  the  other.  It  is 
quite  practicable  to  design  a  block,  some  of  whose  cells,  either  on 
the  inner  or  outer  side  of  the  wall,  shall  be  grouted  and  the  re- 
maining cells  left  open  for  furring.  Since  the  floor  loads  are  more 
easily  applied  to  the  inner  than  to  the  outer  surface  of  the  wall,  the 
furring  space  may  better  be  designed  for  the  outer  surface  of  the 
block.  Where  the  construction  is  a  bonding  wall,  as  in  Texture- 
Tile,  the  Texture- Tile  block  forms  an  ideal  furring  for  a  grouted 
backing.  Texture-Tile,  where  the  cores  are  horizontal,  forms  a 
better  insulation  than  vertical  cores,  the  air  in  which  is  apt  to  be  in 
circulation,  owing  to  the  opportunities  offered  to  the  heated  air 
to  rise  in  the  vertical  chambers  and  its  physical  tendency  to  do  so. 
The  bonding  course  can  readily  be  designed  to  tie  in  with  the 
grouted  backing.  In  designing  a  block  for  vertical  grouting  it  is 
well  to  make  a  double  web  in  the  center  to  provide  a  bearing  for 
the  webs  above  with  an  allowance  for  the  joints  between  the  blocks. 
Permanent  hollow-tile  forms  for  concrete  offer  the  additional 
advantage  of  a  positive  surface  for  plaster  and  stucco.  In  the  case 
of  floors  they  give  depth  to  the  beam,  lightness  to  the  construction 
and  strength  to  the  actual  structure.  As  lintel  and  girder  forms 
they  permit  speedy  work  in  erection  and  in  the  case  of  the  wall- 


98 


ARCHITECTS'    TILE    HOUSES 


girder  may  be  built  on  before  the  concrete  is  set.  The  strength  of 
the  pier  may  be  increased  by  grouting  without  wasting  material 
on  the  curtain  walls,  or  piers  may  be  dispensed  with  and  a  wall  of 
uniform  thickness,  but  of  varying  bearing  capacity  be  readily  pro- 
duced. Also  adequate  furring  spaces  may  be  retained.  All  this 
may  be  done — strong,  light  floors,  quickly  erected  girders  and 
lintels,  powerful  piers,  sure  plastering  surfaces — and  in  the  end  the 
finished  product  will  stand  the  final  test  of  economy. 


POSTER    ARCHITECTURE. 


99 


SNOW    TESTS    THE    COMPOSITION. 


102 


CHAPTER  VII 

Building  the  Other  Man's  House. 

WHEN  you  build  to  sell  to  another  man  the  temptation 
surely  is  to  spend  all  the  money  where  he  can  see  it. 
Yet  that  hidden  value  is  sometimes  the  part  of  wisdom 
has  been  shown  in  many  successful  and  at  least  one  famous  case. 

The  reason  a  new  firm  in  London  has  such  hard  sledding  at 
the  start  is  that  the  old  firms  have  established  a  reputation  for 
giving  value  seen  not  on  the  day  of  purchase,  but  years  later  when 
shoddy  would  have  shown.  They  give  hidden  value.  It  is  too  true 
that  Americans  do  not  try  so  hard  to  keep  long-satisfied  cus- 
tomers. It  is  also  true  that  the  gay  tinder  box  is  more  often  seen 
among  our  real  estate  offerings  than  the  simpler  fireproof  structure. 
These  wooden  houses,  like  some  of  their  habitants,  are  content  with 
a  short  life  and  a  merry  one.  To  be  gay  rather  than  safe,  to  be 
great  rather  than  good  are  the  axioms  of  the  average  real  estate 
agent.    Let  me  show  you  a  few  houses  wherein  there  is  hidden  value. 

The  Fireproof  Village  in  New  Jersey  is  the  work  of  a  man 
who  has  been  a  decade  before  his  time  in  many  lines  of  thought. 
The  Black  Forest  house,  seen  on  page  105,  is  built  in  a  way  its 
second  owner  would  never  have  had  the  experience  or  courage  to 
attempt.  Concrete  floors,  concrete  stairs,  tile  side  walls,  asbestos 
roof,  every  one  costs  more  than  its  usual  substitute,  and  no  one  of 
them  would  add  a  dollar  to  many  a  buyer's  offer.  Forgotten  would 
be  the  fact  that  this  house  will  be  permanent  when  its  substitute 
will  have  perished.  Forgotten  is  its  fire  protection,  safe-guarding 
the  family  day  and  night.  But  not  by  all  forgotten,  for  many  an 
American  knows  gold  from  dross  wherever  he  sees  it,  and  the 
gold  of  the  permanent  home  is  not  unknown  coin  in  every  investor's 
currency. 

103 


104 


THE    OTHER    MAN'S    HOUSE 


The  gabled  house  is  another  of  this  group  to  which  a  similar 
description  applies,  but  I  will  remark  it  only  in  passing,  as  it  will 
have  its  quota  of  comment  elsewhere. 

To  set  the  pace  on  a  beautiful  tract  overlooking  Branch  Brook 
Park,  the  Clark  houses  were  erected.  Concrete  combined  with 
steel  rods  for  beams,  tile  for  walls  and  floors,  slate  for  roofs — how 
little  it  reads  like  the  average  speculation.  How  little  the  pictures 
look  like  the  flaunting  fronts  of  competing  clapboard  castles.  The 
present  owners  are  the  kind  of  men  who  buy  government  bonds. 

The  buildings  at  Forest  Hills  Gardens  are  built  of  hollow-tile, 
and  this  group  so  broadly  conceived  and  well  designed,  has  stamped 


THE  PLANS  OF  THE  ENGLISH  FIREPROOF  HOUSE. 


the  material  with  the  approval  of  the  Court  of  High  Decision. 
When  from  its  safe  haven,  I  look  over  the  financial  wrecks  which 
strewed  the  first-discovered  shores  of  house-fireproofing,  I  see  that  it 
is  really  the  forgotten  grave-stones  of  lost  fortunes  which  have  be- 
come the  cornerstones  of  this  Foundation,  a  foundation  upon  which 
will  be  reared  all  over  America  better  structures  than  she  has 
known.  The  Sage  Foundation  will  become  not  only  at  Forest  Hills 
but  country  wide,  a  strong  foundation  for  homes  of  honesty  and 
permanence  as  well  as  character  and  charm.  With  this  in  mind 
I  bid  you  drink  a  silent  toast  to  those  who  sought  this  shore  as 
well  as  those  who  found  its  haven. 


MR.    PAGE    BUILT    FOR    SALE    A      'BLACK    FOREST    HOUSE"    AT    MOUNTAIN    STATION.    N.    J. 


Squires  &   W'ynkoop.  Architects. 
AN   ENGLISH   HOUSE    WAS    ITS    FIREPROOF   NEIGHBOR. 


lO.") 


Squii-iTS  &■   IVynkoop,  Architects. 

J.     WM.     CLARK    STARTED    HIS    REAL,    ESTATE    TRANSACTIONS    AT    NEWARK    WITH 
FIREPROOF    HOUSES.         IN    THEM    WERE    SOLVED    MANY    OF    THE    EARLIER 
STRUCTURAL   DIFFICULTIES. 

106 


liiiii., .. 


^^-^<%L.2u^asieBl^~ 


Aymar  Embury  II,  Architect. 
A  COMPOSITION   OF   MUTUAL   ADVANTAGES   AT    FOREST   HILLS   GARDENS. 


Albro  &  Lindeberg,  Architects. 

THIS    IS    A    MOST    STRIKING    EXAMPLE    OF    WHAT    MAY    BE    DONE    BY    COMBINING    THE 
INTERESTS  OF  SEVERAL   OWNERS. 

107 


108 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Floor  Building. 

TRADITIONS  stick,  and  a  new  material  is  often  used  for  a 
long  time  in  very  much  the  same  way  as  was  the  material 
which  it  has  superseded.     It  is  therefore  not  surprising 
that  when  concrete  took  the  place  of  wood  for  floor  construction, 
concrete  beams  followed  wooden  images. 

I  am  showing,  as  my  first  illustration,  the  form  of  concrete 
floor  construction  now  most  generally  used.  This  is  an  advance 
over  flat  slabs  of  concrete  which  are  neither  so  Ught  nor  cheap.  The 
beam  is  more  economical  than  the  slab  because  the  strength  of  a 
concrete  beam  depends  on  its  depth,  and  for  this  reason  the  same 
quantity  of  concrete  and  reinforcement,  divided  into  separate  paral- 
lel beams  connected  by  a  thin  top  slab,  will  carry  a  far  greater 
load  than  an  equal  amount  in  a  solid  slab,  which  is  really  a  series  of 
contiguous,  shallow  beams.  Furthermore,  because  they  cross- 
bridge  each  other,  the  same  quantity  of  concrete  in  beams  crossing 
at  right  angles,  will  carry  more  of  a  load  than  an  equal  amount  in 
parallel  beams.  A  beam  is  a  better  way  of  distributing  concrete 
than  a  slab  because  of  concrete's  peculiar  combination  of  strength 
and  weakness.  The  forces  of  compression  and  tension  in  a  work- 
ing beam  are  equal,  and  concrete  has  great  power  to  resist  destruc- 
tion by  compression,  but  little  or  no  strength  in  tension,  for  which 
reason  it  must  be  provided  with  steel  where  subjected  to  tension,  in 
order  to  make  it  efficient.  Now,  the  space  occupied  by  sufficient 
compressive  concrete  to  balance  the  tensile  steel  is  as  one-hundred- 
to-one,  and  as  the  compression  occurs  in  the  top  and  the  tension 
in  the  bottom,  a  rightly  sectioned  beam  is  a  very  top-heavy  affair. 
x'Vbove  the  neutral  axis  concrete  is  providing  compressive  strength, 
which  it  is  physically  best  qualified  to  do;  but  concrete  in  the  ten- 

109 


110  FLOOR      BUILDING 

sion  zone  is  quite  unfitted  for  any  job  except  the  light  labor  of 
tieing  the  steel  tension  rod  into  double  harness  with  the  compression 
concrete. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  in  a  solid  slab  there  is  a  great  amount 
of  idle  concrete  which  is  reduced  in  the  beam  method  by  the  amount 
of  the  voids  between  them.  An  ideal  design  would  provide  just 
enough  concrete  in  the  lower  half  to  properly  cover  the  steel  and 
sufficiently  fireproof  it,  which  is  a  far  cry  from  the  waste  which 
occurs  in  slab  construction.  Of  course  the  slab  on  top  of  the  beams 
is  concrete  strictly  onto  its  job,  doing  good  compressive  work.  As 
I  have  said,  this  condition  is  due  to  the  fact  that,  in  the  balancing 
of  the  equal  and  opposed  compression  and  tension  forces,  it  takes 
one  hundred  volumes  of  compressive  concrete  to  take  care  of  one 
volume  of  tensile  steel. 

There  are  two  ways  of  making  crossing  concrete  beams, 
described  in  the  next  few  pages.  The  first  is  to  produce  them  by 
removable  moulds  and  the  second  by  permanent  forms.  Under  the 
first  I  will  describe  sand-moulding,  under  the  second  show  how 
T  and  V-sectioned  beams  are  formed  by  tile  blocks  and  then  how 
a  plaster  ceihng  may  be  used  for  forms. 

Sand   Moulds. 

AXIOMS  of  architectural  design  unchanged  since  Roman 
times  are  combined  in  sand-moulding  with  engineering 
principles  new  as  the  use  of  reinforced  concrete.  The 
coffer  found  expression  as  an  architectural  principle  in  Roman 
ceilings,  and  still  exists  in  our  best  work.  This  span  of  time  is 
tellingly  illustrated  in  the  ceilings  of  the  old  Basilica  of  St.  Paul 
at  Rome,  and  the  newly  finished  New  York  Post  Office. 

Much  effort  has  been  directed  toward  obtaining  flat  ceilings 
for  plastering.  Either  tile  blocks  are  required,  or  when  plastering 
is  to  go  directly  on  concrete,  the  aggregate  for  the  concrete  must 
be  cinders,  a  very  questionable  material  for  constructive  purposes. 
That  such  indirect  methods   should  be  used  in  the  interests  of 


FLOOR      BUILDING  111 

plaster  presupposes  it  to  be  the  most  desirable  material  for  ceiling- 
covering,  and  such  was  the  case  up  to  a  recent  date,  but  it  is  no 
longer  true,  because  concrete  has  been  so  far  beautified  that  its 
appearance  is  now  better  than  plaster.  Compare  a  plaster  cast 
with  its  duplicate  in  concrete.  The  plaster  is  cold  and  cheap  and 
lacks  the  color,  the  texture,  the  solidity  which  belongs  to  the  con- 
crete image.  Architects  have  gone  so  far  as  to  leave  off  the  smooth 
finishing  coat  of  plaster  and  roughen  the  final  coat  by  mixing  it 
with  sand  in  order  to  avoid  its  staring,  dead-white  surface.  When 
not  so  roughened,  plaster  must  be  tinted  to  make  it  presentable. 

When  the  question  of  elaborating  the  six  surfaces  of  a  room 
is  considered,  it  is  always  the  ceiling  which  receives  the  most  atten- 
tion. This  is  true  alike  in  the  public  building — as  witness  the 
ceilings  of  the  New  York  Public  Library  and  the  waiting-room  of 
the  Pennsylvania  station — and  in  the  city  and  the  country  house. 
It  is  an  accepted  principle  of  design  and  decoration.  The  designer 
of  the  public  work  may  execute  his  ceiling  in  stone,  the  city  mansion 
designer  in  moulded  plaster  or  carved  wood  and  color,  and  the 
country-house  architect  in  moulded  wood,  but  each  in  his  own  way 
puts  the  greatest  emphasis  of  his  interior  on  its  ceiling. 

With  the  discovery  of  light-colored  cements,  concrete  ad- 
vanced rapidly  in  beauty.  Since  it  is  a  combination  of  stone  with 
cement  and  sand,  it  is  easy  to  retain  the  natural  beauty  of  stones 
by  using  them  in  the  mixture.  Reproductions  in  concrete  of  marble 
statuary  are  results  obtained  every  day.  The  difference  in  cost 
and  the  similarity  in  result  between  pouring  a  liquid  into  a  mould, 
and  chiseling  the  same  form  out  of  rock,  is  to  the  disadvantage  of 
the  graven  image.  Lovely  colors  are  obtained  and  the  exposed 
surface  is  dull,  and  so  may  display  soft  tones.  Thus  concrete — a 
material  which  is  part  stone,  and  which  may  reproduce  their  beauti- 
ful colors,  and  which  gives  its  best  structural  results  in  coffered 
forms — is  the  partner  to  sand  moulds  in  this  discussion. 

This  invention  of  mine  involves  the  elaboration  of  the  ceiling 
and  the  casting  of  the  constructive  floor  in  the  same  operation.  It 
is  the  placing  of  temporary  forms  of  moulding  material  on  wooden 


112  FLOOR     BUILDING 

centering,  the  placing  of  reinforcement  in  both  directions  in  the 
spaces  between  the  moulds  and  the  concreting  around  and  over 
these  forms  and  the  subsequent  removal  of  all  the  temporary  work, 
including  the  sand,  leaving  the  completed  concrete  ceihng  in  the 
inverse  image  of  the  moulds.  In  the  plasticity  of  moulding  sand, 
the  consecutive  fluid  and  solid  nature  of  concrete,  and  the  wide 
range  of  beautiful  stones  which  may  constitute  it,  rest  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  scheme.  One  can  divide  the  ceiling  into  myriad 
forms,  practically  kaleidoscopic.  Add  to  this  that  the  method  wel- 
comes all  compressive  forms,  such  as  the  classic  dome  and  Gothic 
vault,  and  the  possibilities  multiply. 

There  is  a  wide  range  of  aggregates,  marble,  limestone,  granite, 
quartz — Nature's  rough  jewelry — which  may  be  used  to  make  up 
the  concrete  itself,  and  it  may  be  covered  with  applied  ornament  by 
insertion  into  moulding  sand  mosaics  of  glass  or  tile  which  will  be 
held  and  displayed  in  the  finished  ceiling.  Architectural  forms  like 
the  rosette  may  be  cast  separately  and  inserted  into  the  moulds  and 
so  arranged  as  to  bond  in  with  the  slab  after  the  removal  of  the  sand. 
The  forms  may  be  sprayed  with  a  liquid  mixture  of  cement  and  any 
sparkling  material  such  as  broken  glass,  and  a  shell  of  it  formed 
over  the  moulds  which  will  be  the  visible  part  of  the  slab  when  the 
forms  are  removed. 

Another  way  to  enrich  them  is  by  blowing  upon  the  dampened 
ceiling  a  mixture  of  cement  and  color,  which  becomes  literally  a 
part  of  it.  Colors  may  be  applied  directly  to  the  top  of  the  moulds 
by  pouring  a  film  of  the  liquid  coloring  material  and  cement  upon 
them,  and  allowing  it  to  set  a  little  before  the  commoner  materials 
of  the  bulk  of  the  slab  are  poured.  The  obvious  method  of  forming 
panels  of  cement  or  plaster  and  using  them  as  permanent  forms  has 
been  tried,  but  lacks  the  fascination  of  the  fluid  and  has  some 
physical  disadvantages  beside. 

Rather  than  bewilder  you  with  a  thousand  suggestions  for  its 
application,  I  will  explain  the  process  itself  by  means  of  photo- 
graphs and  leave  it  to  you  to  realize  how  wonderful  are  its  oppor- 
tunities. 


ST.    PAUL'S,    AT    ROME. 


113 


^ 

H 

^ 

U 

^/ 

± 

* 

O 

-^ 

S 

X 

Ij^ 

u 

'J 

In 

114 


FLOOR     BUILDING  115 

For  over  a  year  I  tried  experiments  in  moulding  materials 
before  I  settled  on  moulding-sand  as  the  best.  Clay  gave  results, 
but  had  to  be  covered  with  paper  in  order  to  keep  its  outlines  under 
the  softening  influence  of  the  wet  concrete.  Plaster  was  next  con- 
sidered and  abandoned  because  its  undercutting  did  not  readily 
release  from  the  concrete.  The  moulding-sand  method  proved  best 
and  is  shown  in  these  pictures. 

I  devised  it  while  watching  childi*en  playing  on  the  beach.  They 
grooved  the  hard  sand  in  a  gridiron  pattern  with  their  hoes  and  it 
struck  me  that  these  mounds  were  strong  enough  to  receive  concrete 
without  losing  shape.  After  experiments  with  beach  sand,  and 
observation  of  the  iron-moulders,  the  idea  of  highly  decorated  sand- 
moulded  ceilings  became  a  conviction.  After  a  winter  of  experi- 
ments, the  first  floor  was  modeled  and  poured,  and  the  following 
photographs  were  taken  during  the  process.  The  matrix  shown  in 
Figures  8  and  9  was  made  from  the  same  design  as  the  one  used 
for  obtaining  plaster  forms  for  a  previous  experiment.  It  is  a  posi- 
tive, made  of  plaster  reinforced  with  cloth  to  the  exact  size  of  the 
coffer  to  the  center  of  the  beam  all  round,  with  projections  on  two 
sides  for  handles.  Where  less  decoration  is  required  the  matrix  is 
wood-and-plaster  combined.  The  cheapest  matrix  is  illustrated 
here  with  photographs  of  a  wooden  one,  empty,  sand  filled  and 
covered  with  a  palette — Figures  10,  11,  and  12.  The  process  of 
making  sand  moulds  from  the  matrix  is  simple.  The  matrix  is  set 
on  two  parallel  two-by-four  studs  laid  on  the  floor  and  the  dampened 
moulding-sand  is  heaped  into  it  with  a  shovel  and  tamped  hard  by 
gentle  blows  from  a  sand-bag  shown  in  Figure  9.  When  full,  the 
top  is  leveled  with  a  straight  edge  and  covered  with  a  wooden 
palette  made  just  the  size  of  the  matrix.  The  moulder  overturns 
the  two,  setting  the  palette  on  the  two-by- fours  and  freeing  the 
matrix  from  the  sand  by  a  rap  with  the  sand  bag.  Then  the  matrix 
is  lifted  and  the  palette  with  its  sand-mould  is  set  on  the  temporary 
centering  ready  for  concreting  as  is  illustrated  by  Figure  13. 

Figure  14  shows  the  reinforcement  laid  in  place  in  the  channels 
between  the  moulds;  the  plank  pouring  platform  and  the  ladders 


116  FLOOR     BUILDING 

on  which  the  concrete  is  raised,  are  also  shown.  Part  of  the  concrete 
is  seen  akeady  poured  at  the  extreme  left  of  the  picture,  Figure  15. 

Figure  16  shows  the  concrete  mounting  up  along  the  sides  of  the 
sand  moulds  and  has  completely  covered  some  of  them.  None  of 
the  moulds  were  injured  by  the  concrete,  which  was  poured  from 
pails,  and  the  only  special  care  taken  was  in  directing  the  stream 
along  the  beams  and  not  directly  upon  the  top  of  the  sand  moulds. 

Panels  of  ceilings  done  in  sixteen  inch  coffers  from  the  elabor- 
ate plaster  matrix  are  shown  in  Figure  17,  and  Figure  18  shows  the 
result  when  the  sand-moulds  were  made  from  a  simple,  wooden 
matrix.  A  metal  matrix  in  bold  relief  would  produce  sharper 
results  than  any  I  have  shown.  Sand  moulding  is  most  engrossing 
and  opens  a  new  field  in  design  for  every  thoughtful  architect.  It 
will  tend  to  greater  freedom  and  originality  in  the  application  of 
ornament  because  of  the  ease  with  which  it  can  be  modeled  and  the 
delightful  texture  of  the  sand  finished  surface. 

The  T-Beam. 

AN  inventor  of  airships  was  recently  heard  to  say  that  if  he 
ever  had  to  give  up  his  contests  with  the  birds,  he  would 
concentrate  on  concrete.  The  greatest  of  all  inventors 
has  often  turned  aside  from  electrical  research  for  the  delight  of 
delving  into  the  far-seen,  measureless  possibilities  of  stone-creating. 
It  is  significant  that  its  call  has  been  heard  by  these  men  of  might, 
for  it  shows  that  in  the  conquest  of  concrete  is  the  breeding  of  giants. 
Though  its  study  absorbs  great  minds,  concrete  itself  is  but  a  homely 
thing,  and  it  is  not  with  the  thought  of  an  Edison  but  with  the 
brains  of  a  builder  that  this  chapter  most  concerns  itself. 

I  will  now  describe  the  floors  made  with  permanent  fillers  and 
will  begin  with  a  combination  of  tile  blocks  which  produces  crossing 
T-shaped  concrete  beams. 

The  builder  had  been  thinking  while  he  poured  concrete,  and 
devised  a  beam  sectioned  like  a  T  by  means  of  parallel  rows  of  tile 
blocks  which  were  themselves  on  their  closed  sides  inverted  Ts.    He 


FIG.     10.      THE     WOODEN     MATRIX. 


S^B^ 


-^TUfgnay- 


FIG.     11.      THE     WOODEN    MATRIX.    SAND- 
FIEI^ED. 


FIG.     8.      THE    PILASTER    MATRIX. 


THE    WOODEN    MATRIX,     WITH    THE  FIG.    9.      TAMPING   THE    SAND    INTO    PLACE    IX 

PALETTE    COVERING    IT.  THE    PLASTER    MATRIX. 

117 


THE     SAXD     MOULDS    WITH     THEIR    PALETTES     SET     ON 
TEMPORARY     CENTERINGS. 


FIG.     14.      THE    REINFORCING    BARS    PLACED    BETWEEN    THE    SAND 

MOULDS. 


FIG.  15.   THE  CONCRETE  PARTLY  POUKED. 

118 


KIG.     ll,.      THE     FLUID    CONCRETE    IS    POURED     BETWEEN    THE     SAND 
MOULDS    AND    RISES    AND    FLOWS    OVER    THEM. 


51 


t' 


FIGS.      17      AND      IS.      CONCRETE     CEILINGS     CAST      OVER      SAND     MOULDS. 


119 


THE    CONSTRUCTION    OF     THE    GROUTED    WALL. 


PIG.    19.      THE    BLOCKS    ASSEMBLED    FOR    THE 
TWO-WAY     T-BEAM     CONSTRUCTION. 


FIG.    20.      THE   CONCRETING  WITH   AND  WITH- 
OUT  TOP    SLAB,    SHOWING   DOUBLE    AND 
SINGLE    T-SECTIONS. 


120 


FLOOR    BUILDING  121 

worked  this  out  first  for  parallel  beams  and  adapted  it  later  to 
crossing  beams,  and  I  have  noted  these  as  its  most  obvious  good 
quahties.  The  T-shape  is  a  good  section  for  a  concrete  beam,  be  it 
one-way  or  two- ways,  because  it  puts  the  emphasis  where  it  belongs. 
A  T-section  provides  a  mass  of  compressive  concrete  where  concrete 
is  needed  and  cuts  down  tensile  concrete  because  it  has  little  value. 

Mr.  Vought's  block  is  an  inverted  T  on  the  closed  sides,  and 
the  same  section  is  provided  on  the  other  sides  by  placing  loose 
members  similar  to  the  flange  of  the  T  along  the  lower  halves  of  the 
open  sides  of  the  block.  See  Figure  19.  When  the  beams  are 
poured,  the  concrete  comes  into  permanent  contact  all  around  the 
top  of  the  block  in  the  compression  area,  even  entering  the  open 
ends.  There  are  no  dry  tile  joints  to  reduce  the  value  of  the  com- 
pression. Dry  joints  occur,  it  is  true,  in  the  lower  part,  but  here 
they  do  no  harm,  for  the  tile  and  concrete  are  subjected  to  tension 
only,  and  such  force  is  amply  taken  by  the  steel.  A  glance  at  Figure 
20  shows  all  concrete  excluded  from  the  open  ends  below  the  neutral 
axis  by  the  fillers  where  it  would  be  a  dead  load  and  allowed  to  run 
into  the  open  ends  above  the  neutral  axis,  where  it  solidifies  the  com- 
pressive section.  This  scheme  of  closing  the  right  part  of  the  open 
ends  of  the  block  is  a  recommendation.  It  is  noteworthy  also  that 
the  method  is  developed  so  that  it  does  not  require  tight  centering. 

It  is  seen,  then,  that  the  T  beam  presents  the  advantages  of  a 
section  which  is  in  conformity  to  the  physical  strength  and  weakness 
of  concrete,  that  it  makes  the  tile  do  actual  work  in  the  slab,  induces 
concrete  into  the  compressive  and  excludes  it  from  the  tension  part, 
permits  open  centering  and  produces  an  all-tile  ceiling  for  plaster- 
ing.   Not  such  a  bad  showing  for  a  builder's  invention ! 

The  Corr-tile  floor  is  shown  in  Figure  21.  A  rectangular  tile 
with  flanges  on  its  closed  sides  is  used  in  connection  with  channels 
placed  along  its  open  ends  to  form  repeatable  square  fillers,  making, 
when  assembled,  forms  for  crossed  concrete  beams  between  them. 
It  has  many  manifest  advantages,  not  the  least  of  which  is  the  all- 
tile  ceihng  produced  thereby. 

This  construction  is  the  result  of  a  process  of  elimination  and 


NATCO   HOLLOW  TILE, 
WALL. THE  PEOOeC- 
-TINQ  DOVETAILS 
AR£-5CORED 
FOR,  STVCCO 
AND  ■PLASTEE.. 

3"  PACING 
TILE. 


CONJCaETe  SLADOVEe 
TIL£  WHEM  NECESSARY 
TO  INCREAOE.  STRENGTH 


HOLLOW 
TILE 


Concrete  £>EAMe> 

^^  WIDE  l&  OM  CElTrtR-S> 

EeiNrOR.CED  WITH  TVfSTEJD 

OE,    COaaVQATED  3TEEL.BARS 

I50METR1C   PEee>PECT\VE: 
or  CX:>ME)1NAT10M  TLOO^  COM5- 
-TT^\/CT10N 

out  rooT 

DETAIL      OP     WALL      CONSTRUCTION      OF     NATCO      HOLLOW      TILE      WITH      FIREPROOF 

FLOOR   OP   HOLLOW   TILE    AND   REINFORCED   CONCRETE   BEAMS.         THIS   FLOOR 

CAN   BE   CARRIED    SAFELY   OVER    VERY   LONG   SPANS. 


FIG.     21.      CORR-TILE    CONSTRUCTION. 


122 


FIG.    22.      THE    EXPERIMENT    WITH    ONE-INCH    STONE 


FIG.    23.      THE   RESULT    WITH   FINE   GRAVEL. 


THE    STRENGTH    OF    THE    CONCRETE    BOND    BETWEEN 
BEVELED     BLOCKS. 


123 


FIG.     24.      THE     BEVELED     BLOCKS     PARTLY     CONCRETED. 


25.      THE    CONTACT    ALL    ALONG    THE    BOTTOM    MAKES    EACH    BLOCK 
IMMOVABLE    AND    PRESENTS    AN    ALL-TILE    CEILING. 


124 


FLOOR     BUILDING  125 

development  and  has  stood  the  test  of  use.  Many  of  the  newer  New 
Jersey  schools  owe  their  fireproof  quality  to  Corr-tile.  Its  prede- 
cessors were  the  Faber  system  and  another  only  slightly  less  suc- 
cessful product  of  the  same  inventor,  a  prolific  originator  named 
Ferdinand  Burchartz.  Too  much  praise  cannot  be  given  to  this 
system  and  the  impressive  energy  of  those  who  have  fought  its  bat- 
tles to  a  successfid  outcome. 

The  Beveled  Block. 

THE  next  scheme  to  be  considered  is  the  two-way  floor  formed 
with  beveled  blocks.  It  is  a  construction  of  single  tile  units 
which  are  beveled  on  all  sides  so  that  they  may  be  placed 
with  their  lower  edges  in  contact  and  thus  form  between  adjacent 
blocks  crossing  V-shaped  channels  as  containers  for  reinforcement 
and  moulds  for  concrete  beams.  I  will  show  this  block  in  process 
of  manufacture  as  well  as  its  use  in  the  floor,  and  will  demonstrate 
that  it  is  a  stock  product  no  more  complicated  than  the  common 
rectangular  block. 

The  idea  of  beveled  blocks  to  contain  between  them  intersectino- 
V-beams,  came  to  me  after  a  talk  with  Mr.  Asher  Atkinson  as  to 
the  ideal  section  of  a  concrete  beam  for  such  work.  This,  he  said, 
should  be  above  the  neutral  axis  almost  a  parabolic  curve.  Up  to 
that  time,  hollow  tile  had  been  a  successful  form  medium,  but  no 
combination  of  blocks  had  ever  approached  a  parabolic  curve,  be- 
cause of  the  many  and  strenuous  difficulties  in  departing  from  the 
angular  in  tile  manufacture.  The  parabolic  curve  could  only  be 
approached  by  a  form  made  up  of  straight  lines.  I  had  a  general 
knowledge  of  accepted  forms  of  tile-and-concrete  floor  construction 
and  of  the  ingenious,  but  often  complicated,  methods  in  use  to  pro- 
vide tile  containers  for  beams.  The  problem  did  not  seem  to  be 
solved  because  of  the  difference  between  the  theory  and  the  practice. 

Now  entered  chance.  I  had  designed  a  bottling  house  in 
Amsterdam,  the  owner  of  which  was  a  very  knowing  kind  of  man 
by  whom  the  superintendence  of  an  architect  was  not  considered 


126  FLOOR    BUILDING 

necessary.  (This  kind  of  a  man  is  familiar  to  every  architect  who 
reads  these  pages.)  The  floor  construction  of  his  bottling-house 
was  the  common,  one-way,  tile-and-concrete  beam  method,  and  it 
was  not  mentioned  in  the  specification,  as  being  too  obvious,  that 
the  tile  in  the  rows  forming  the  confines  of  the  beams  should  touch 
each  other  on  their  open  ends  and  should  present  their  closed  sides 
to  the  concrete.  The  cHent,  not  knowing  the  accepted  practice,  and 
feehng  that  the  concrete  would  not  bind  the  tile  in  place  strongly 
enough  in  this  way,  decided  to  set  the  tile  with  the  open  ends  to  the 
concrete.    He  then  proceeded  to  pour  his  beams  and  slabs. 

Some  time  later  I  had  occasion  to  be  in  Amsterdam  and  saw  the 
position  of  the  tile  in  the  unplastered  basement  ceiling  of  the  com- 
pleted building.  I  called  my  client's  attention  to  the  fact  that  he 
had  a  considerable  dead  load  of  concrete  in  the  open  ends  of  the  tile. 
This  he  denied.  "You  can't  make  half-inch  stone  float,  and  the 
cement  and  sand  won't  leave  it."  His  observation  was  that  the 
concrete  had  not  run  far  into  the  open  ends  of  the  tile — in  his  own 
words,  "Just  enough  to  hold  the  blocks  in  place." 

There  had  been  piping  suspended  from  the  basement  ceiling  by 
means  of  puncturing  the  middle  of  the  bottom  web  of  the  tile  block 
and  hanging  wires  from  nails  laid  in  the  tile  above  the  bottom  web 
and  across  these  small  openings.  At  such  places  it  was  possible  to 
measure  the  exact  distance  to  which  the  concrete  had  run  into  the 
open  ends,  and  investigation  proved  that  the  owner  was  right.  The 
suction  of  the  porous  tile  had  impeded  the  flow  of  concrete  so  that 
it  had  run  into  the  block  but  little  at  each  end,  leaving  the  middle 
of  the  tile  untouched  and  dry  as  a  bone.  From  observation  of  this 
error  of  a  novice  client  and  contractor  and  linking  it  with  the  advice 
of  Atkinson  about  the  ideal  section  of  a  concrete  beam,  came  the 
conception  of  an  open-ended  beveled  block  as  solving  the  problem. 

Some  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  beveled  block  are 
laughable  now  that  they  have  been  overcome.  A  prominent  floor- 
designer,  consulted  during  the  theoretical  stage,  said  that  a  tile 
so  shaped  could  not  be  manufactured.  So  set  was  he  in  this  idea 
that  even  when  he  sees  the  photographs  of  it,  he  will  say,  like  the 


FLOOR    BUILDING  127 

farmer  who  went  to  a  circus  and  saw  a  giraffe  for  the  first  tinie,  "It 
ain't  possible!  There  ain't  no  such  critter!"  A  tile  manufacturer 
said  that  you  couldn't  pile  them  on  end  in  a  kiln.  The  scheme  of 
reversing  the  faces  as  shown  in  Figure  9,  had  never  occurred  to 
him. 

A  "doubting  Thomas"  is  one  of  our  sincerest  citizens.  "I'm 
from  Missouri  and  you've  got  to  show  me,"  is  one  of  the  best  senti- 
ments in  the  world  if  it  isn't  uttered  by  the  farmer  who  saw  the 
giraffe.  The  things  I  have  had  to  show  have  been  that  the  suction 
of  the  block  checks  the  concrete,  that  the  rod  is  abundantly  sur- 
rounded with  concrete  and  the  beam  section  itself  follows  engineer- 
ing principles.  It  is  self-evident  and  need  not  be  shown  even  to 
those  from  Missouri  that  the  scheme  of  setting  repetitions  of  a 
single  sjinetric  unit  is  simple,  that  it  puts  the  top  of  the  block 
in  compression,  and  furnishes  an  all-tile  ceiling. 

When  the  block  came  on  the  job  the  principal  question  was  in 
how  far  the  concrete  would  enter  the  open  ends,  and  in  order  to 
satisfy  ourselves  on  this  point  we  made  a  number  of  interesting  and 
conclusive  experiments  shown  in  the  accompanying  photographs. 
Several  of  the  blocks  were  sawed  in  half  from  open  end  to  open  end 
and  put  in  their  regular  position  in  a  small  section  of  floor,  a  board 
was  sawed  to  the  slope  of  the  sides  of  the  adjacent  blocks  and  fitted 
up  close  to  the  cut  block.  Concrete  was  then  poured  into  the  chan- 
nels, as  shown  in  Figure  22,  and  after  it  had  set  the  board  was 
removed.  Two  experiments  were  tried,  one  with  one-inch  stone 
concrete  and  the  other  with  the  finest  gravel  concrete.  After  the 
boards  were  removed  pictures  were  taken  as  indicated  in  Figures 
22  and  23.  The  concrete  of  one-inch  stone  had  hardly  entered  at 
all,  and  the  concrete  of  fine  gravel  had  worked  in  less  than  enough 
to  form  a  square  beam.  I  know  of  no  better  test,  or  more  scientific, 
that  could  have  been  applied  to  settle  this  critical  point.  The  open- 
ings may  be  entirely  closed  with  sand  if  this  refinement  is  desired. 

After  these  experiments  were  successfully  concluded,  the  floor 
slab  shown  in  Figures  24  and  25  was  poured  with  cinder  concrete. 
You  will  note  that  the  photographs  were  taken  to  show  two  methods 


128  FLOOR     BUILDING 

of  construction,  one  in  which  the  concrete  is  not  intended  to  go  above 
the  tops  of  the  blocks,  the  tile  itself  taking  its  place  in  compression, 
and  giving  a  result  which  would  be  sufficient  for  moderate  spans 
and  loads.  A  concrete  top  slab  is  shown  in  the  corner  of  one  illus- 
tration, a  method  which  would  be  used  with  longer  spans  and 
heavier  loads. 

In  this  description  of  a  new  use  of  tile  in  floors,  I  feel  quite 
sure  that  I  have  interested  you  with  the  pictures  and  I  hope  I  have 
interested  you  by  showing  how  advances  in  building  progress  some- 
times come.  One  man  may  know  but  one  thing  well,  as  the  tile 
manufacturer  expertly  knows  his  tile,  and  another  man  may  know 
another  thing  well,  as  Mr.  Atkinson  knows  his  engineering.  Once 
in  a  while  a  third  man  who  doesn't  know  nearly  as  much  about  either 
subject  as  its  own  specialist  gets  a  chance  to  talk  to  each  and  welds 
the  triple  information  into  an  invention. 

The  Plaster  Block. 

I  HAD  been  impressed  while  looking  over  various  schemes  for 
providing  forms  for  crosswise  reinforcement,  that  the  problem 

had  been  approached  almost  entirely  from  the  point  of  view 
of  deriving  a  two-way  system  from  some  well-known  one-way 
scheme.  This  was  especially  noticeable  in  hollow  tile,  whose  manu- 
facture required  that  each  block  must  be  open  on  two  sides  so  that 
the  two-way  adaptations  were  practically  inventions  in  closing  the 
open  ends.  Searching  around  for  a  material  which  should  not  have 
such  limitations,  I  ran  across  the  sand  moulding  process,  a  descrip- 
tion of  which  has  just  appeared  in  these  pages,  and  while  experi- 
menting with  it  I  went  through  the  whole  range  of  moulding 
materials,  and  in  this  way  became  acquainted  with  gypsum,  from 
which  the  plaster  block  is  made.  I  found  immediately  that  it  was 
subject  to  none  of  the  limitations  as  a  form  for  crosswise  reinforce- 
ment that  are  inherent  in  hollow- tile. 

Having  thrown  away  tradition  and  having  found  a  material 
which  could  take  a  closed  form  on  all  sides,  it  then  seemed  timely  to 


FIG.  26.   THE  TEN  DOLLAR  FACTORY. 


FIG.  27.   THE  SLOTTED  PLASTER  BLOCK. 


FIG.  28.   CASTING  THE  HOLLOW  PLASTER  BLOCK  IN  HALVES. 

129 


FIG.    29.      MAKING    A    HOLLOW    PLASTER    BLOCK    BY    CASTING   THE    DOME    IN    ONE    PIECE 
AND    PUDDLING   THE    BOTTOM   IN. 


FIG.    31.      CT.OSED    B0TT0:MEL)    I'LASTKR    BLOCKS    ON   THE    FORMS. 


FIG    30.      A    TELLING   ILLUSTRATION   OF    ECONOMY    IN    FORM    WORK.      THIS    SHOWS    THE 
UNDERSIDE    OF    THE    SLOTTED    PLASTER    BLOCKS. 

130 


FLOOR     BUILDING  131 

work,  no  longer  on  the  material  of  the  forms,  but  on  the  ideal  shape 
into  which  to  mould  the  concrete.  I  was  confident  that  this  would 
not  be  the  outline  shown  in  existing  two-way  tile  or  iron  form 
systems,  which  would  unquestionably  be  limited  by  the  rigid  make 
of  the  materials.  It  seemed  obvious  also  that  the  outline  of  the 
concrete  beam,  with  its  one  per  cent,  tension  and  ninety-nine  per 
cent,  compression  volumes,  could  be  nothing  like  the  outline  of  a 
wooden  or  iron  beam  which  is  homogeneous,  yet  had  been  copied  in 
the  existing  tile-schemes. 

If  I  could  once  settle  what  this  outline  should  be,  I  had  at 
hand  a  plastic  material  which  I  could  make  conform  to  it  and  later 
as  a  mould  produce  a  similar  outline  in  the  concrete  itself.  Mr. 
Asher  Atkinson  plotted  the  ideal  outline  of  a  concrete  beam  as  a 
double  parabolic  curve  starting  at  the  neutral  axis  and  rising  on 
each  side  until  it  met  the  top  slab.  He  modified  this  slightly  to  take  a 
mean  course  between  this  curve  and  an  ellipse  having  the  same  axes, 
so  as  to  take  care  of  concentrated  loads.  To  simplify  the  idea  and 
get  clear  of  geometric  terms,  let  us  consider  the  beam  to  have  curved 
sides  instead  of  straight.  This  line  is  a  far  cry  from  anything  that 
can  be  made  up  out  of  hollow-tile  blocks  but  is  perfectly  easy  to 
produce  in  gypsum. 

Plaster  is  easily  channeled  on  its  lower  surface  for  electric  con- 
duits and  may  be  cut  to  fit  around  pipes,  columns,  or  any  other 
obstruction.  Concrete  does  not  affect  it,  nor  yet  did  it  cleave  to  it, 
so  it  seemed  desirable  to  obtain  a  sure  mechanical  bond  between  the 
two.  Each  being  a  material  that  goes  through  consecutive  fluid  and 
solid  states,  such  a  mechanical  bond  was  one  of  the  simplest  possible 
things  to  obtain. 

Being  convinced  that  there  was  a  chance  for  a  plaster  block  as 
a  fireproof,  permanent  mould  for  concrete,  there  remained  only 
the  casting  and  building  of  it  into  an  actual  operation.  I  knew 
that  plaster  had  been  used  as  a  mould  for  the  most  delicate  kinds 
of  ornamental  concrete  work,  so  I  foresaw  that  there  could  be  no 
difficulties  arising  from  difl'erences  in  the  expansion  or  contraction 
of  gj^psum  and  concrete  in  a  big  slab.     It  was  at  Oakland,  N.  J., 


132  FLOOR     BUILDING 

that  the  first  opportunity  came  to  use  plaster  blocks  in  a  fireproof 
building.  We  shipped  the  material  to  the  site  and  with  it  the  blue 
print,  from  which  a  carpenter  made  the  moulds  shown  in  Figure  26. 
Four  of  these  were  made  and  they  were  all  the  machinery  used. 
Two  Italian  laborers  turned  out,  at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty  a  day,  such  blocks  as  are  shown  from  top  and  bottom  in 
Figure  27.  You  will  note  that  the  block  far  more  nearly  approaches 
the  parabolic  curve  recommended  by  the  engineer  than  any  previous 
form.  The  mechanical  bond  is  produced  by  an  inward  sweep  near 
the  bottom  of  a  block  at  the  point  where  the  bar  will  come  when  the 
block  is  put  on  the  form  and  serves  the  double  purpose  there  of 
binding  the  block  into  the  concrete  slab  and  of  surrounding  the  bar 
with  a  plentiful  amount  of  concrete.  It  also  shows  the  lath  effect 
which  may  be  readily  plastered.  In  our  later  work,  however,  this 
block  was  made  in  halves,  as  shown  in  Figure  28,  or  made  hollow 
and  a  bottom  puddled  in,  as  shown  in  Figure  29,  and  in  both  cases 
the  block  required  only  a  white  coat,  after  it  had  become  a  part  of 
the  ceiling.  Figure  30  shows  the  form  work  and  the  blocks  sup- 
ported on  it.  You  will  notice  that  it  is  very  open  and  obviously 
inexpensive.  Figure  31  shows  the  closed  blocks  on  the  forms. 
Figure  32  shows  the  blocks  on  the  forms  and  the  rods  in  position. 
These  blocks  proved  to  be  very  strong  and  were  not  affected  at  all 
by  stormy  weather  or  the  walking  and  trucking  which  took  place 
on  them.  They  were  well  aligned,  the  reason  for  which  may  be 
readily  seen  by  glancing  back  at  the  blocks  themselves.  Since  all 
the  blocks  were  made  in  the  same  mould,  they  must  necessarily  be 
perfectly  true  on  all  their  lower  edges  and  surfaces,  so  that  when 
they  are  put  edge-to-edge  on  the  form  you  cannot  move  one  without 
moving  all.  For  this  reason  the  concreting  was  easy  and  sure. 
Figure  33  shows  the  concrete  over  the  top,  and  the  insert  shows  that 
the  plaster  holds  nails,  and  I  have  cast  floors  in  which  the  concrete 
was  brought  only  up  to  the  level  of  the  top  of  the  block  and  the 
rough  floor  nailed  directly  to  it.  This  is  possible,  of  course,  only 
because  of  that  other  quality  of  the  plaster  block  that  it  can  be 
grooved  on  the  under  side  for  electric  conduits.     If  it  had  been 


FLOOR    BUILDING  133 

necessary  to  put  these  conduits  on  the  top  of  the  slab  it  would  also 
have  been  necessary  to  have  provided  sleepers  and  fill  as  in  the  usual 
construction.  This  feature  of  the  material  saved  two  or  three  inches 
in  the  thickness  of  the  slab.  After  the  forms  were  taken  down,  a 
plaster  ceiling  was  presented  by  the  blocks  themselves,  which  was 
readily  finished  with  a  very  thin  coat. 

The  main  advantage  which  appears  in  plaster  block  is  cheap- 
ness, due  to  these  reasons.  First  of  all,  the  materials  are  shipped 
in  bulk  to  the  site,  a  very  economical  procedure,  especially  since 
every  job  requires  plaster  any  way.  Then  the  moulds  are  very 
simple  and  have  a  very  low  first  cost,  the  working  of  gypsum  is 
known  to  thousands  of  laborers,  the  pouring  of  the  liquid  gypsum 
into  the  mould  and  the  opening  of  the  mould  and  removing  the 
block  eight  minutes  later  is  a  fool-proof  operation.  The  fact  that 
gypsum  sets  up  quickly  is  the  salvation  of  the  whole  scheme,  as  four 
moulds  will  keep  two  men  busy,  and  two  men  can  turn  out,  when 
pushed,  a  hundred  and  fifty  a  day.  The  type  of  labor  that  knows 
enough  to  go  in  when  it  rains  has  all  the  intelligence  required. 

The  form  work  for  the  plaster  consists  only  of  three-by- fours  at 
the  junction  of  each  row,  supported  in  turn  on  two-by-tens  about 
five  feet  on  centers  running  in  the  opposite  direction.  The  blocks 
line  up  so  true  that  there  is  no  waste  of  concrete  through  the  joints, 
which  makes  for  economy  in  that  material.  A  ceiling  such  as  shown 
in  the  photographs,  and  more  particularly  a  ceiling  where  an  entire 
gypsum  surface  is  presented,  is  the  most  economical  kind  of  a  sur- 
face on  which  to  plaster,  for  it  is  literally  a  rough  plastered  ceiling 
before  the  plastering  is  begun.  An  ornamental  coffered  ceiling  of 
any  degree  of  elaboration  may  be  obtained  by  casting  plaster  blocks 
in  an  ornamental  mould  as  is  shown  in  Figure  14,  but  I  have  been 
an  architect  long  enough  to  know  that  anything  which  aspires 
towards  beauty  is  signing  its  own  death  warrant  when  it  obtrudes 
itself  into  an  engineering  problem. 

I  am  now  at  the  goal  for  which  I  set  out.  I  have  a  form  which 
fits  an  engineering  theory.  To  the  best  of  my  knowledge  the  beam 
produced  by  it  is  exactly  what  the  engineer  told  me  to  produce.    The 


134  FLOOR    BUILDING 

form  is  but  a  form.  It  takes  a  good  explainer  to  get  away  ^^-ith 
some  of  the  other  present-day  forms.  The  plaster  block  starts  with 
the  theory  of  the  outUne  of  the  concrete  beam  and  modestly  conforms 
thereto.  Having  done  so,  it  must  follow  that  the  concrete  is  exactly 
where  it  belongs,  in  other  words,  that  the  minimum  of  concrete  is 
doing  the  maximum  of  work. 

I  would  say  in  closing  that  it  has  long  been  considered  good 
engineering  to  reinforce  a  concrete  slab  by  a  series  of  parallel  rods 
crossed  by  a  second  parallel  series  laid  at  right  angles  to  the  first  in 
order  to  carrj^  the  load  equitably  to  all  the  four  supports,  and  it  has 
long  been  known  that  such  a  slab  could  be  improved  by  cutting  out 
the  idle  concrete  in  the  lower  part.  The  forms  to  do  this  work  had 
suffered  much  in  efficiency  on  accoimt  of  the  physical  limitations 
of  the  materials  from  which  they  were  made,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  plaster  block  was  developed  that  a  permanent  form  was  found 
which  could  perfectly  section  the  resulting  beams.  One  of  the 
requirements  was  a  flat  plaster  ceiling,  and  the  plaster  block  is  flat 
and  it  is  plaster.  It  is  easy  to  make  and  easy  to  use,  and  both  in 
manufacture  and  construction  spells  "economy." 


FIG.     32.       THK      l;i:iM'i  M;i    l^.MEXT     IX     i'LAc'i; 


FIG.    33.      THE    :\i:.KiiLi    COMPLETED    SLAB. 
135 


LEATHERSTOCKING    PALLS. 


136 


CHAPTER  IX 

Tile  in  Stucco   Surfaces. 

THERE  is  hollow- tile  and  there  is  a  kind  of  tile  which  is 
thin  and  flat,  good  for  floors  and  the  protection  and  em- 
bellishment of  other  surfaces.  Since  their  names  are  so 
similar  but  their  uses  so  divergent,  lest  there  be  confusion  of 
tongues,  I'll  turn  a  little  from  my  way  to  describe  the  use  of  decor- 
ative tile  and  then  suggest  a  way  to  wed  decorative  to  structural. 

To  the  designer,  tile  offers  opportunities  in  the  enrichment  of 
his  buildings  by  fprm  and  color.  In  the  present  illustrations  the 
design  shows  plainly  and  needs  little  more  description;  but  color, 
not  being  visible,  requires  elaboration. 

Tile  works  advantageously  with  a  wide  range  of  other  things, 
but  always  as  the  decorative  spot  or  band,  a  small  part  only  of  the 
surface.  The  growing  popularity  of  brick  work  gives  a  wide  field 
for  tile  design  in  its  connection.  It  has  been  used  effectively  with 
marble,  and  its  rich  tones  harmonize  with  the  wood  work  and 
hangings  of  interiors.  The  growing  popularity  of  cement  covered 
buildings,  due  to  their  fireproofness,  has  introduced  for  their  en- 
richment a  new  problem  in  design,  one  which  is  well  solved  by  the 
application  of  tile  to  their  exteriors,  and  it  is  about  such  applica- 
tions that  I  have  written  this  description. 

A  glance  at  the  illustrations  shows  the  general  principles  of 
tile  design  in  stucco  surfaces.  Panels,  band-courses  and  scattered 
patterns,  covering  a  small  percentage  only  of  the  surface,  are  the 
rule.  Such  parts  of  the  severer  forms  as  would  be  treated  with 
carving  under  strict  interpretation  may  be  treated  less  formally 
in  tile.  It  must  be  held  in  mind,  however,  that  in  the  great  ma- 
jority of  cases,  this  tile  is  of  commercial  size  and  color,  and  design 
with  it  is  a  matter  of  selection.    That  is  to  say,  such  elaborate  archi- 

137 


138  TILE    IN    STUCCO    SURFACES 

tectural  forms  as  coffers  and  rosettes  must  be  avoided  and  flatter 
features  used.  Design  becomes  a  matter  of  selection  from  obtain- 
able forms  and  their  proper  combination  with  each  other  and  with 
the  surface  of  the  building  to  be  treated.  This  method  of  design, 
as  well  as  the  cement  field-material  itself,  leads  into  a  new  realm 
of  inventiveness  and  has  already,  and  will  continue  to  produce 
unusual  results.  To  apply  the  principles  just  stated  to  the  illus- 
trations, it  will  be  seen  that  the  exedra  and  the  bank  are  classic  forms 
of  which  the  usually  decorated  parts  are  treated,  not  with  classic 
ornament,  but  tile.  One  would  expect  the  inner  surface  of  the 
half-dome  to  be  coffered  and  decorated  with  rosettes,  in  a  classic 
model,  but  the  same  general  effect  is  produced  by  insertions  made 
up  of  small  flat  tile.  The  cylindrical  form  below  is  paneled  with 
flat  inlay,  at  a  distance  recalling  very  nearly  the  effect  that  its 
classic  designer  would  produce.  What  would  have  been  a  classic 
column  becomes  an  ornamented  pier,  where  the  classic  would  require 
carved  decoration.  The  bank  portal,  although  executed  in  cement, 
is  classic  in  its  members,  and  here  again  the  tile  applies  in  just  the 
places  where  the  earlier  artist  would  have  used  relief.  Specially 
modeled  forms  have  been  introduced,  such  as  might  be  expected 
in  terra-cotta,  and  these  designs  may  be  produced  in  loveliest  colors 
where  their  magnitude  permits.  More  personal  are  the  appli- 
cations of  tile  to  the  entrance  and  upper  treatment  of  the  cement- 
covered  house.  A  highly  modeled  water  spout,  interrupting  a 
continuous  band,  marks  the  center  of  the  entrance  wall,  which 
guards  a  double  flight  of  steps  leading  to  a  doorway. 

The  lower  stories  of  the  city  house  are  designed  and  decorated 
to  produce  charm  without  extreme  originality.  The  circular- 
headed  windows  are  merely  surrounded  with  bands  of  tiny  tile  and 
between  them  are  decorative  spots  of  faience  figures.  The  whole 
composition  is  in  low  relief  and  color. 

It  may  then  be  concluded  that  tile  design  may  take  the  place 
of  the  usually  decorated  parts  of  classic  composition,  or  on  more 
personal  and  orginal  conceptions,  may  properly  occur  in  panels, 
bands  and  scattered  ornaments. 


"^£3^-. 


TILE    DECORATION    OP    AN    EXEDKA. 


139 


fel.'-.f*1 


'■l*t/  ■  •,  11* 


TILE    USED    TO    ORNAMENT    SURFACES    IN    CLASSIC    DESIGN. 


140 


H 


141 


TILE    IN    THE    STUCCO    SURFACES    OF    A    CITY    HOUSE. 


142 


TILE    IN    STUCCO    SURFACES  143 

Among  the  lost  arts,  but  soon  to  be  revived,  is  color  in  our 
buildings.  Because  the  light  is  less  intense,  color  may  be  used 
more  safely  for  interiors,  but  Capri  and  many  other  old  world  cities 
show  that  it  is  not  amiss  out-doors.  We  know  that  color  is  per- 
missible in  Spain  and  Italy  and  even  as  near  home  as  Mexico,  but 
on  account  of  some  subtle  difference  in  our  atmosphere  we  are 
warned  that  it  may  not  be  used  at  home.  How  may  we  reconcile 
with  this  negation,  the  beauty  of  our  green  fields  and  forests,  our 
purple  hills  and  autumn  leaves?  Who  cavils  at  vine-covered 
churches  or  rose-bowered  doorways?  Surely  bad  taste  in  its 
application,  rather  than  any  quality  of  North  American  atmos- 
phere, has  hurt  the  fair  name  of  native  out-door  coloring. 

I  think  the  difficulty  is  more  in  a  matter  of  texture  than  color 
and  that,  as  a  fact,  if  sufficient  roughness  were  introduced  into  the 
surfaces  of  our  buildings  they  would  stand  a  deal  of  proper  coloring. 
It  will  be  noticed  in  the  brick  work  of  today  that  the  faces  of  the 
successful  buildings  are  rough  and  that  where  this  is  done  there  is 
made  possible  ample  color  in  the  field  itself,  and  brighter  accents. 
In  our  chosen  stucco,  it  is  easy  to  get  texture  and  even  color.  But 
the  neutral  gray  of  its  natural  surface  makes  the  strongest  cry  for 
color  decoration.  It  is  a  field  in  which  colors  find  harmonious 
resting  places.  None  are  more  rich  and  lovely  than  those  of  un- 
glazed  and  mat-glazed  tile,  and  none  blend  better  with  a  stucco 
surface.  You  may  ask  why  colored  glazes  are  not  applied  to  struc- 
tural tile  itself,  and  I  will  answer  that  this  is  being  done.  Next 
year  may  see  charming  mat  glazed  hollow  tile  structures. 

In  color  there  is  always  a  far  distant  Grail  for  painter  and 
designer,  and  the  difficulty  of  attaining  its  perfection  has  discour- 
aged many  from  its  quest.  There  is,  however,  the  safe  middle- 
ground  of  the  well  tried,  and  here  the  designer  may  begin.  He  is 
aided  by  the  generous  hospitality  of  the  grey  stucco  field  for  color, 
and  if  the  number  is  kept  small  the  task  is  far  more  safe  and 
simple.  With  each  success  a  little  more  may  be  attempted  until 
at  last  a  rich-toned  building  maj'  take  an  honored  place  in  the  color 
harmony  of  nature. 


CHAPTER   X 

Tricks  of  The  Trade. 

IF  you  are  curious  to  account  for  the  charm  of  the  building  shown 
in  these  photographs  and  plans,  you  may  be  willing  to  read  this 

explanation  of  the  methods  by  which  it  was  accomplished.  I 
have  shown  by  the  pictures  the  points  which  give  it  interest,  and  in 
the  text  I  shall  try  to  describe  them. 

The  house  is  a  fireproof  building  of  hollow  tile,  part  of  whose 
interest  in  design  is  due  to  imagination  and  personal  feeling  for  the 
right  thing  in  composition,  but  while  it  is  picturesque,  much  of  its 
effect  is  due  to  certain  broad  architectural  principles  which  apply  to 
this  and  many  another  building  and  which  I  shall  call  "tricks  of 
the  trade." 

The  most  obvious  trick  is  the  use  of  repetitions  of  a  unit,  for 
you  will  see  that  all  the  window  sash  are  made  up  of  equal  panes  of 
glass  and  the  window  groups  themselves  are  made  up  of  sash  of 
equal  size.  The  masonry  opening  is  small,  giving  a  sense  of  in- 
creased size  to  the  whole  building;  for  instinctively  we  judge  the 
size  of  the  general  mass  by  the  size  of  some  part  of  it  which  is  nearly 
constant,  such  as  a  window,  a  door  or  a  step,  and  by  minimizing  these 
well-known  measurements  we  can  maximize  the  general  mass.  It  is 
a  trick  like  stage-perspective.  Similarly,  the  size  of  the  ground  plan 
of  a  building  is  judged  largely  by  comparison  with  its  height,  for 
plan  sizes  have  no  standard  and  cannot  be  mentally  computed,  while 
the  story  heights  are  nearly  standard  and  quite  obvious.  In  this 
house  the  standard  has  been  reduced  by  keeping  the  general  rooms 
very  low,  not  over  eight  feet,  thus  making  the  building  have  the 
effect  of  exaggerated  ground  space,  which  is  augmented  by  con- 
taining the  porch  under  the  main  roof  and  setting  the  building  itself 
low  in  the  g;round.  The  observer  does  not  realize  that  all  the 
heights  have  been  reduced  below  the  usual  standard  of  comparison. 

144 


145 


146 


TRICKS     OF     THE     TRADE  147 

The  porch  increases  this  effect  by  the  smalhiess  of  its  entrance 
door,  and  the  lowness  of  the  solid  rail.  These  give  a  sense  of  scale 
because  such  things  have  a  well  known  relation  to  the  size  of  the 
human  figure.  When  the  building  has  reached  this  stage  in  design, 
its  impression  of  ample  size  is  assured.  The  remaining  tricks  are 
additions  to  its  charm. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  ridges  of  all  the  gables  intersect,  so 
that  from  whatever  point  you  see  the  building,  it  has  a  long  roof 
line,  a  trick  picked  up  in  England,  where  it  is  quite  generally  prac- 
ticed. The  high  chimney  hails  from  England  also.  Its  position 
was  fixed  by  combining  economy  of  plan  and  composition  of  ex- 
terior, and  the  plan  and  the  picture  show  how  well  the  single  chim- 
ney fulfills  its  double  mission. 

The  roof  is  the  main  feature  of  the  house,  and  to  accomplish 
its  outline  considerable  adjustment  in  plan  was  required,  and  it  is 
such  ingenuity  to  shift  a  room  to  the  point  in  plan  where  it  will 
help  the  elevation  without  damaging  its  relation  to  the  other  rooms 
that  marks  the  difference  between  the  designer  and  the  draftsman. 
Every  house  must  have  certain  rooms,  and  each  particular  house 
must  have  particular  rooms  of  almost  fixed  sizes  and  locations. 
Size,  site  and  sun  may  not  be  gainsaid,  but  it  is  always  possible  to 
adjust  the  plan  and  elevation  to  the  general  advantage.  In  this 
house  the  dining  room  had  its  size  and  location  fixed,  and  the  living 
room  must  be  of  about  a  given  size  and  on  a  given  street.  By  ad- 
vancing the  dining-room  for  a  gable  and  keeping  the  porch  line 
flush  with  its  front  wall,  it  was  possible  to  start  the  ridge  of  the 
gable  over  the  living-room,  level  with  the  dining-room  gable-ridge 
and  bring  its  roof  line  over  the  porch.  The  center  of  the  big  gable 
is  not  over  the  center  of  the  living-room,  but  no  artistic  difficulty 
is  thereby  experienced,  owing  to  the  way  the  window  grouping  is 
adjusted  by  centering  the  sash  and  not  the  masonry  openings. 

The  groups  of  windows  in  the  dining  room  gable  are  diminished 
in  each  higher  story  according  to  the  needs  of  the  plan  as  well  as 
the  best  appearance  of  the  exterior.    A  refinement  in  the  vnndow 


148  TRICKS     OF     THE     TRADE 

frame  will  be  noticed  in  that  the  woodwork  forms  a  imiform 
band  around  each  sash  and  becomes  literally  a  frame. 

When  this  house  was  built,  not  a  tree  was  cut  down.  The  big 
chestnut  in  the  angle  at  the  rear  had  much  to  do  with  the  aspect 
of  the  plan,  and  now  the  red  roof  gets  a  tone-intensifying  back- 
ground of  green  leaves  from  every  point  of  view.  This  question  of 
site  is  a  most  important  trick,  for  there  is  no  use  deluding  oneself 
with  an  impossible  paper  presentment  in  one's  office,  when  the  prob- 
lem is  not  a  picture  at  all,  but  a  real  house  on  a  real  lot.  Money  can 
do  much  toward  correcting  the  site  to  fit  the  house,  but  it  is  wiser 
to  make  the  premises  the  premise. 

One  of  the  tricks  of  the  trade  is  the  proper  use  of  materials. 
Here  they  were  decreed  to  be  fireproof  hollow-tile  and  asbestos 
shingle,  which  present  about  the  same  problem  in  design  as  any 
masonry,  stucco  covered  red  roofed  house,  except  that  the  roofing 
material  is  thin  and  the  color  more  rosy  than  a  red  slate  and  this 
rose  requires  browner  and  rougher  stucco  than  would  be 
used  with  other  reds.  Also  the  fireproof  nature  of  the  house 
argues  with  no  httle  logic  for  a  minimum  of  wooden  decoration. 
It  was  necessary  then  to  get  all  the  interest  in  the  building  by 
composition  and  by  such  tricks  of  the  trade  as  I  have  just  de- 
scribed. 

It  would  seem  natural,  that,  with  all  these  schemes  for  accom- 
plishing exterior  interest,  the  plan  would  have  been  mutilated, 
but  such  is  not  the  case.  Turning  to  it,  you  will  see  a  house  with 
the  plan  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms  and  you  might  suppose  that 
here  the  designer  had  freest  hand.  What  strikes  the  eye  immediate- 
ly, is  the  generous  living  room  with  its  floor  below  the  general 
level  of  the  house.  But  you  may  also  notice  that  the  plan  is  so 
arranged  as  to  require  but  one  chimney  and  one  stair  case  branch- 
ing to  the  kitchen.  There  is  no  hall  downstairs  and  upstairs  only 
enough  for  communication  with  the  various  rooms.  The  closets  are 
found  under  the  long  slopes  of  the  roof  or  under  stairs.  In  the 
gables  above  are  the  servants'  rooms  and  in  the  basement  is  the 
laundry.     Instead  of  the  waste  and  confusion  which  an  English 


TRICKS     OF     THE     TRADE  149 

plan  for  so  much  designed  a  house  would  show,  one  finds  here 
only  economy. 

But  it  is  in  the  rejuvenating  of  old  buildings  that  one  finds 
the  best  place  to  try  the  whole  bag  of  tricks.  The  fact  that  the 
house  of  thirty  years  ago  was  seldom  designed  by  an  architect, 
but  was  well  and  soundly  built  by  carpenter  or  mason,  gives  the 
redesigner  a  chance  to  be  the  wonder  worker  who  gives  new  lamps 
for  old.  The  carpenter's  house,  for  very  lack  of  attempt  at  any 
architectural  design,  was  of  simple  form  and  outline,  and  this 
simplicity  lends  itself  gracefully  to  modern  adornment  by  skilled 
hands. 

The  reader  readily  recalls  such  types  as  the  rectangular  house 
with  simple  gabled  roof  and  that  very  popular  type  of  thirty  years 
ago,  the  square  house  with  a  flat  roof,  yet  lofty  withal  and  sur- 
mounted by  a  cupola.  "Let  well  enough  alone",  is  the  best  rule  for 
the  true  Colonial  houses,  work  of  craftsman  carpenters.  It  was 
not  until  attempts  were  made  to  follow  a  complicated  style,  such 
as  the  mansard  roof,  that  houses  were  built  which  were  so  complex 
as  to  be  almost  impossible  to  improve  by  redesign.  It  is  then  tnie 
that,  on  account  of  simplicity  of  construction,  the  builder's  house 
of  thirty  years  ago  is  nearest  the  fountain  of  perpetual  youth. 

The  interior  of  an  old  house  seldom  presents  any  serious 
difficulties  as  its  beauty  is  largely  a  question  of  tones  of  color,  well 
chosen  rugs  and  hangings,  and  good  furniture.  The  plan,  to  be 
sure,  may  be  improved  by  the  removal  of  partitions  and  the  addi- 
tion of  a  new  fireplace,  more  wood  work  and  new  floors  but  many 
a  beautiful  result  is  the  work  of  a  decorator  availing  himself  of  no 
change  in  plan  whatever.  It  is  on  the  exterior  that  the  architect 
may  work  his  magic,  by  changing  outlines,  colors,  and  natural 
surroimdings,  or,  in  bigger  words,  by  redesigning,  redecorating, 
and  landscape  gardening.  The  redesigner  may  improve  the  build- 
ing by  removing  or  covering  its  manifestly  objectionable  parts, 
by  giving  it  scale  and  interesting  outline  with  low  additions  and 
by  bringing  it  into  harmony  with  its  surroundings. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  cupola  may  always  be  removed  to 


150  TRICKS    OF    THE    TRADE 

the  betterment  of  the  house,  most  of  the  old  porches  also  come 
under  the  ban,  and  the  sawed-wood  decorations,  product  of  over- 
ingenious  and  ill  directed  artisans,  find  a  more  fitting  function  in 
the  wood-pile.  Fortunately,  the  newest  developments  of  plan  re- 
quired by  modern  living,  the  first  floor  laundry,  the  breakfeast- 
porch,  the  servant's  dining  room,  and  the  sleeping  porch,  are  the 
greatest  help  in  redesign.  A  porte-cochere  properly  managed  is 
a  helpful  adjunct,  as  is  also  the  end  porch  in  distinction  to  the  old 
front  porch.  The  fact  that  we  are  beginning  to  enter  the  house  on 
the  road  side  and  Uve  out-doors  at  some  other  point,  often  in  the 
seclusion  of  a  garden  at  the  rear,  gives  opportunity  for  terraces  and 
steps,  httle  refinements  which  help  immensely.  Lattice  for  vines, 
flower  boxes  and  pergolas  are  useful  and  ornamental  in  themselves 
and  invite  that  greater  charm  of  flowers.  Low  sweeping  roofs, 
extending  the  old  gables,  may  give  just  the  needed  invitation  to 
summon  home  a  hovering  charm. 

I  have  just  explained  that  by  varying  the  dimensions  of  well 
known  parts  of  a  house,  the  conception  of  the  size  of  the  unknown 
parts  may  be  influenced.  Thus  an  extra  low  step  or  extra  small 
door,  or  a  series  of  little  windows  may  make  the  building  itself 
look  larger  than  it  is.  Similarly,  one  story  additions  at  the  sides 
of  a  building  increase  the  apparent  size  of  the  central  part.  These 
low  parts  may  be  so  arranged  as  to  give  interest  to  the  outline  of 
the  building,  and  so,  not  only  improve  its  scale,  but  its  actual  form 
as  well.  Although  it  is  difficult  to  affect  the  scale  of  an  old  building 
by  steps  and  windows  which  are  usually  fixed  in  the  old  work,  yet 
terraces,  entrances  and  low  additions  are  usually  possible  and 
always  effective,  and  the  present-day  niceties  of  service-wing,  break- 
fast room,  conservatory  and  end  porch,  may  help  in  this  way  to 
rejuvenate  the  house  born  two-score  years  ago. 

Here  it  may  be  well  to  tell  the  advantage  one  has  in  adapting 
an  old  building  to  its  site  over  starting  anew.  In  the  old  days  such 
a  fijie  point  as  building  neighborly  to  nature  was  never  considered. 
A  house  was  a  house ;  the  same  house,  on  a  hillside,  in  a  valley,  in 
the  woods,  or  on  a  plain  and  it  was  just  dumb  luck  if  it  happened  to 


=b 


Co    C3 


151 


THE  OLD  BOWXE  HOUSE  AT  TENAFLY  BEFORE  IT  WAS  REDESIGNED. 


Squires  &   JVyiikoop,  Architects. 
WHITEHALL,    TODAY.    THE    HOME    OF    MR.    W.    H.    NOYES. 


152 


TRICKS     OF     THE     TRADE  158 

hit  it  off  in  its  surroundings,  however  well  Old  Time  toned  down  its 
incongruities.  But  trees  and  vines  and  turf  need  time,  and  time 
the  old  building  has  provided  if  nothing  else. 

So  the  redesigner  has  the  rare  opportunity,  not  possible  in 
new  work,  of  studying  a  building  in  connection  with  matured  sur- 
roundings. His  wider  survey  helps  him  to  see  its  faults  and  over- 
come them.  He  can  clip  a  lofty  gable  or  tie  down  a  towering  mass 
by  means  of  low  wings  or  porches  on  its  sides  and  then  with  har- 
monious colors,  paint  the  whole  building  into  its  back  ground  of 
verdure  and  with  trees  and  vines  cover  what  he  cannot  cure.  He 
can  model,  paint  and  plant,  at  the  very  site,  hfe-size  into  the  final 
picture. 

Long  ago  there  was  built  at  Tenafly,  a  tin  roof  and  cupola 
creation  with  a  one  story  porch  on  the  south  and  east.  For  some 
unknown  reason  the  entrance  was  made  on  the  side  and  not  on  the 
street,  a  scheme  successful  enough  in  picturesquely  straggling 
dwelhngs,  but  never  in  one  of  so  mathematical  a  make-up.  Around 
it,  as  if  to  cover  its  disgrace,  splendid  trees  had  grown  and  the 
lines  of  its  site  had  fallen  in  pleasant  places.  When  the  redesigner 
started  to  improve  this  building,  the  task  seemed  will-nigh  hopeless 
because  a  regular  arrangement  of  windows  was  its  only  saving 
grace.  "It  is  a  shame  that  the  whole  thing  cannot  be  covered  up,"  he 
said,  in  peevish  desperation.  The  words  were  his  clue  and  his  clue 
was  a  colonnade  for  that  is  the  only  architectural  way  to  cover  up 
a  building.  Look  at  the  two  pictures.  Instead  of  its  bald  and  ugly 
walls,  there  is  nothing  now  to  see  but  a  classic  order  hiding  the  old 
monotony  under  deep  and  interesting  shadows.  The  shaggy  ever- 
greens accentuate  the  crisp  gradations  of  light  and  shade  and 
shadow  which  have  ever  modeled  classic  contours. 

Just  as  bad  in  itself  and  without  the  advantage  of  good  natural 
surroundings,  was  the  Plainfield  house.  This  is  chosen  as  an  ex- 
ample of  that  type  of  buildings  of  mid-Victorian  persuasion  so 
common  thirty  years  ago.  A  brutal  plan,  broken  by  narrow  bays 
carried  to  an  awful  height,  and  the  whole  too  lofty  mass  covered 
with  a  tin  roof  without  form  and  void,  and  shrieking  thence  via 


154  TRICKS     OF     THE     TRADE 

cupola  to  heaven,  has  for  its  only  saving  sense  a  solidity  which  has 
paid  httle  toll  to  thirty  years  of  usage.  The  redesigner  first  stripped 
off  its  worst  features,  the  band-sawed-porch  and  cupola  appendix. 
Then  he  made  a  little  entrance  at  grade  and  invited  you  to  enter 
through  a  lich  gate.  He  mitigated  the  severity  of  the  side  walls 
by  carrying  them  out  to  form  the  profiles  of  the  porch  and  by 
lengthening  it  gave  the  impression  that  the  house  rested  soHdly  on 
the  ground  and  had  lost  that  avidity  for  aviation  which  had  always 
marked  it.  A  httle  lattice  work  to  reduce  its  height  by  division 
into  frieze  and  field  and  the  trick  was  nearly  done.  A  finishing  touch 
with  the  warm  color  of  lime-stone  over  the  stucco  and  olive-green 
over  the  wood  work,  and  the  house  has  been  lifted  out  of  the  dark 
ages.  It  has  been  given  scale  through  lich  gate  and  low  entrance, 
interest  through  porch  profiles  and  charm  through  restful  colors 
and  now  all's  well,  though  ninety-nine  per  cent,  is  the  work  of  a 
builder,  long  since  taken  to  a  just  punishment  from  the  scene  of 
his  misdemeanors.  You  see  then  that  it  is  by  tricks  of  the  trade  that 
the  designer  guides  his  hand,  and  nowhere  is  his  intimate  trade- 
knowledge  better  seen  than  in  "new  lamps  for  old." 


.S,;uiics   &    n  .v,W,,/,-/.   .hcli.tccls. 

A     HOrSE     AT     NEW     YORK     UNIVERSITY     ASSISTED     BY 
CONCRETE     DECORATION. 


Squires  &   U'yttkoop,  Architects. 

IX  THE  CHURCH  OF  ST.  LUKE  THE  EVANGELIST  AT  ROSELLE,  THE  HORIZONTAL 

BANDS  ARE  CONCRETE. 

155 


■~  O 

■G  < 

2  0 

I  "^ 

■5  O 

5  H 

.2>  H 

>  Ptj 

:±  o 

*  o 

1  g 


156 


THE  ENTRANCE  TO  THE  LIBRARY  AT  VYGEBERG  FARM  IS  AN  EXAMPLE  OF 
ADVANCED  CONCRETE  CONSTRUCTION. 


157 


158 


CHAPTER  XI 

Tile  and  Concrete  Partners. 

THE  more  I  have  studied  hollow-tile,  the  more  I  have  been 
impressed  with  the  necessity  for  its  collaboration  with  con- 
crete. For  wall-building,  to-day's  laurel  goes  to  the  mor- 
tared unit  hollow  block  and  up  to  now  the  victor  is  the  hollow  tile. 
But  where  bending  strains  are  present  as  in  all  forms  of  floor  con- 
struction, reinforced  concrete  is  the  only  available  masonry.  Dec- 
oration of  the  tile  walls  is  often  best  in  the  more  plastic  concrete 
and  so  here  and  elsewhere  there  should  be  co-operation  rather  than 
contention  between  the  two  materials.  This  article  argues  amono- 
other  things  for  concrete  columns  to  take  the  place  of  wood.  It 
seems  not  reasonable  that  the  structure  of  the  walls  should  have 
advanced  in  permanence  beyond  the  point  to  which  have  gone  their 
architectural  embellishments.  The  costly  and  conspicuous  should 
not  be  the  evanescent. 

The  Church  of  St.  Luke  the  Evangelist,  at  Roselle,  signifies 
much  in  these  pages  because  it  was  the  success  of  its  hollow  walls 
of  brick  which  encouraged  me  to  try  the  same  principle  in  hollow- 
tile.  The  permanent  decorations  of  this  church  were  the  ornamental 
bands  so  clearly  seen  on  the  exterior,  more  effectively  used  within. 
A  noteworthy  comparison  in  the  price  of  stone  and  ornamental 
concrete  exists  between  the  limestone  altar  and  these  mural  decor- 
ations for  the  little  altar  cost  more  than  all  the  concrete. 

In  the  Keiser  house,  shown  on  page  77,  the  piers  are  masonry 
and  a  good  deal  of  structural  concrete  has  been  used  in  floors  and 
girders.  Large  cement  areas  are  provided  for  porch  floors  and 
steps.  Here  hollow-tile  and  concrete  conduct  a  very  even  partner- 
ship.   Sand-moulded  slabs  show  concrete  doing  more  than  its  share 

159 


160         TILE    AND     CONCRETE,    PARTNERS 

as  decoration.  In  such  buildings  as  the  Schaeffer  house  on  page  56, 
concrete  is  doing  structural  work. 

The  Newhall  house,  on  pages  199  to  203,  shows  the  most  ad- 
vanced ideas  in  hollow-tile  and  one  of  the  most  recent  thoughts  in 
concrete  in  its  use  in  porch  columns. 

Most  important  architecturally  is  the  poured  concrete  column. 
Fourteen  of  these  were  made  in  place  in  a  single  plaster  mould  at 
a  less  cost  than  ephemeral  wood.  It  is  a  demand  of  logic  that  isolated 
supports  should  be  of  a  material  more  powerful  than  continuous 
walls,  and  here  we  have  heard  the  call  and  answered  it.  I  consider 
this  substitution  of  a  more  permanent  material  at  a  lower  price  to  be 
the  kind  of  forward  step  which  marks  true  progress  in  construction. 
Having  improved  the  structure  of  the  shell,  we  have  drawn  even 
with  it  by  improving  to  a  similar  extent  the  solidity  and  permanency 
of  its  structural  and  architectural  adornments. 


TEXTURED    ROMAN    BRICK   IX    THE    PALATINE    ARCH.      THE    ITALIANS   WERE   FAMILIAR 
WriH    MOST   OF   OCR   MODERN   DISCOVERIES    (!)    IN   BRICK    MAKING. 


161 


PERSIA     KNEW     THE     VALUE     OF     TEXTURE     IX     CERAMICS     AS    WELL    AS    IX     RUGt 
SILKS.        SHE    WOVE    MASONRY    DESIGNS    INTO    THIS    MAUSOLEUM    OF    A 
DEAD     SHAH    AT    SAMARKAND. 


162 


< 

^^ 

a- 


CCtX 

OQ 


163 


164 


CHAPTER  XII 

Texture  and  Scale. 

TEXTURE  is  a  fundamental  part  of  all  things  beautiful. 
Nature  displays  it  in  green  trees,  waving  grain,  snow,  sky, 
and  sea.  Texture  is  infinite  variety.  Natural  beauty  de- 
pends on  texture,  and  all  art  by  the  hand  of  man  must  do  the  like,  or 
by  its  loss  fall  short  of  Nature's  standard. 

It  is  then  but  a  thing  of  course  that  the  artisan  must  follow  the 
artist  and  so  we  see  texture  produced  by  the  maker  of  tapestry,  by 
the  rug  weaver,  the  fabric  spinner,  the  metal  worker,  and  him  who 
fashions  for  the  building  craft. 

In  ceramics  as  in  fabrics  beauty  depends  on  texture  of  color 
and  of  surface.  Color  texture  is  the  ensemble  of  small  units  varying 
each  in  a  small  degree  from  its  neighbor.  The  general  tone  is  a 
blend  of  all  of  them,  but  always  with  the  interest  of  the  contrasts. 
Sm'face  texture  is  a  thing  of  shadows.  It  is  the  play  of  hght  and 
shade  upon  a  roughened  surface  and  it  is  enhanced  if  the  units  of 
the  surface  and  their  dividing  Hnes  make  up  a  pleasing  pattern. 

To  illustrate  these  truths,  I  have  chosen  pictures  of  brick 
work,  both  ancient  and  modern,  to  which  I  shall  refer  in  my  story 
of  the  hollow-tile  house,  both  where  the  house  is  covered  with  brick 
work  embodying  these  features,  and  when  these  principles  have 
been  embodied  in  making  and  using  the  hollow-tile  itself,  for  hollow- 
tile  has  lent  itself  so  well  to  a  textured  surface  that  when  exposed 
I  have  called  it  "Texture-Tile." 

In  all  brick,  old  and  new,  the  method  of  its  making  has 
been  the  same.  Solid  lumps  of  clay  have  been  burned  and  their 
limit  in  size,  has  been  determined  by  that  of  the  single  piece  of  build- 
ing clay  which  could  be  burned  through  to  the  center  without  de- 
stroying its  outer  surfaces.   A  simple  modern  invention  has  cut  this 

165 


166  TEXTURE    AND    SCALE 

Gordian  knot  and  now  the  size  of  the  burnable  clay  unit  is  restricted 
only  by  its  weight,  for  the  clay  has  been  made  cellular,  and  although 
the  thickness  of  burnable  clay  remains  as  limited  as  it  has  for  the  last 
two  thousand  years,  yet  a  cellular  block  can  be  produced  many  times 
brick  size.  This  larger  block  is  far  more  economical  in  every  way 
than  the  brick  which  it  is  destined  to  surplant,  so  that  the  problem 
which  the  designer  has  to  face  is  not  how  to  avoid  this  big  building 
block,  but  how  to  use  it. 

The  brick  size  was  not  a  deliberate  artistic  choice  but  on  the  con- 
trary was  settled  solely  by  the  limitations  of  brick-making.  Bound 
down  to  the  fixed  size  of  brick,  the  wonders  worked  by  the  designer 
and  the  craftsman  so  well  shown  in  the  photographs,  have  been 
wrongfully  attributed  as  virtues  of  the  size  of  brick  rather  than 
viewed  as  trimnphs  over  limitations  as  is  the  very  fact.  A  brick 
is  the  smallest  structural  unit  ever  used.  Were  a  talented  designer 
given  an  outline  drawing  of  any  building  and  told  to  divide  it  into 
the  most  pleasing  building-units,  his  resulting  lines  would  never 
indicate  divisions  but  three  inches  high.  I  say  again  that  were  it 
not  for  the  physical  limitations  and  the  inertia  of  tradition,  the  brick 
size  would  never  be  a  free  choice  as  a  unit  of  design.  This  claim  is 
not  confined  to  brick  work,  for  it  has  been  proved  by  every  other 
building  material  as  well,  that  a  larger  unit  is  in  better  scale. 

Shingles  show  best  when  laid  wide  to  the  weather  and  I  will 
show  and  describe  several  such  buildings.  The  Best  house  would 
have  lost  all  charm  with  three-inch  shingles,  but  with  a  covering  of 
wide  spaced  shingles  it  had  a  chance.  I  will  say  a  few  more  general 
words  about  it  for  its  other  interests  are  due  to  a  picturesque  en- 
vironment and  the  very  difficulties  of  the  rugged  lay  of  the  land 
have  required,  in  overcoming  them,  a  building  of  some  character. 
The  site  is  a  narrow  ridge  of  rock,  the  highest  point  anywhere  about, 
and  to  keep  the  house  from  looking  like  the  Ark  stranded  on  Ararat 
was  a  problem.  Furthermore,  the  only  approach  is  by  road  along 
the  north  side,  although  the  best  view  and  exposure  are  opposite. 
A  sheer  fall  of  rock  at  all  the  other  sides  completes  the  unfortunate 
round. 


SAN   STEPHANO. 


THE   NEARER   TO   THE   SURFACE   THE   GREATER   ITS 
RESEMBLANCE    TO    A    FABRIC. 


167 


SAN    STEPHANO.        CLOSE    AT    HAND    THE    WORK    IS    KALEIDOSCOPIC. 


168 


THERE     IS     TEXTURE     IX     STONE,     BRICK.     SLATE     AND     VINES    IN     THIS     FIFTEENTH 
CENTURY    HOUSE    AT    LTNDFIELD,     SUSSEX. 


169 


Carrere  &  Hastings,  Architects. 


NEW-OLD    BRICK    EFFECTS. 


170 


TEXTURE    AND     SCALE  171 

Porch  over  the  rock,  entrance  hall  and  porch  straight  on  the 
centre  of  the  view,  living  room  and  dining-room  tm'ned  toward  the 
sun,  kitchen  isolated  and  all  perched  along  a  narrow  ridge  of  rock 
a  hundred  feet  long  and  only  one  room  wide,  such  was  the  solution 
of  the  site.  It  is  well  to  notice  that  the  success  of  the  plan  depended 
on  placing  the  rooms  so  that  the  long  side  of  each  was  at  right 
angles  to  the  long  side  of  its  neighbors.  The  result  is  that  one  feels 
a  pleasing  contrast  in  form  and  direction  when  passing  from  one 
room  to  another.  It  was  endeavored  to  make  the  house  look  as 
though  it  was  rooted  in  the  rocky  ridge  and  had  not  been  merely 
marooned  by  a  receding  tide.  Here  also  was  a  new  consideration 
in  composition.  The  bold  contour  of  the  rock  required  a  house  of 
rugged  build  to  hold  its  own.  The  general  outlines  mount  up  like 
the  hill.  The  low  porch  and  kitchen  flank  the  three  stories  of  the 
main  house  and  the  transition  is  made  by  the  long  outer  sweep  of  the 
gables,  making  the  building  pile  up  to  the  centre.  The  high  part  of 
the  house  takes  in  three  rooms,  and  the  porch  and  kitchen  wing  one 
each,  which  you  may  trace  in  the  exterior.  The  ingle-nooks  form 
two  additional  parts,  very  much  smaller  than  the  others,  between 
the  big  and  little  masses,  and  their  expressions  on  the  outside  in 
narrow  windows  between  the  chimneys  and  the  high  part  of  the 
house,  gives  by  contrast  a  sense  of  additional  size  to  the  whole 
building. 

The  materials  and  colors  as  well  as  the  contour  bind  the  house 
to  its  environment.  The  stone  for  walls  and  chimneys  came  from  the 
rock  on  which  the  building  rests.  The  brown  of  the  woodwork,  the 
tarnished  silver  of  the  shingled  side  and  the  leaf  green  of  the  roofs 
are  wood  colors  like  the  woods  around. 

Leatherstocking  Farm  House  is  another  example  of  the  advan- 
tages of  large  sc^le  in  shingle  units  and  is  as  well  one  of  the  most 
interesting  works  on  which  I  have  ever  been  employed.  I'll  take  a 
recess  from  tile  and  tell  you  about  it. 

The  Indian  Story  Teller  has  made  so  familiar  to  us  the  haunts 
of  Pathfinder  and  Deerslayer,  that  it  is  like  going  back  to  boyland 
to  read  again  of  Leatherstocking,  and  it  is  satisfying  to  find  that 


172  TEXTURE    AND     SCALE 

the  region  of  those  all  entrancing  Indian  tales,  is  still  of  romantic 
beauty.  Otsego,  a  glimmering  lake,  densely  wooded  and  set  in  a 
hollow  of  the  hills,  still  whispers  to  storied  shores  as  it  did  in  the 
days  of  Leatherstocking,  although  the  Indian  is  gone  and  Deer- 
slayer  lives  only  in  his  bronze  effigy  on  the  village  green. 

One  rides  to-day  from  Cooperstown  along  the  splendid  lake 
road  to  get  to  Leatherstocking  Farm.  All  along  the  way  are  familiar 
Indian  names  like  Otesega.  Your  guide  will  point  out  to  you 
places,  whose  very  names  bring  back  the  delightful  shivers  of  a 
story  read  ten  or  twenty  years  ago.  Two  miles  along,  we  leave  the 
road  and  climb  the  hill  top  and  our  first  sight  of  the  farm  is  Leather- 
stocking  gorge.  At  its  end,  seen  through  a  vista  of  long-stemmed 
trees,  is  the  bold  leap  of  Leatherstocking  Falls,  whose  cavernous 
voice  has  given  the  sight  increasing  mysterj^  while  our  dizzy  height 
above  its  jagged  water-bed,  lends  just  the  needed  touch  of  fear  to 
make  its  picture  permanent.  The  music  of  plunging  waters,  with 
ever  changing  outline,  following  many  a  fighting  force,  is  a  perfect 
prelude  for  the  great  opening  scene. 

We  cross  the  bridge  above  the  falls,  pass  through  the  trees 
that  fringe  the  brook  and  emerge  on  a  never-to-be-forgotten  sight. 
A  few  steps  into  the  open  and  we  are  at  the  focus  of  the  view.  It 
it  as  though  Nature  had  put  a  compass  point  right  here  and  with 
the  other,  struck  off  segments  of  great,  ever  widening  circles.  We 
look  far  down  to  the  lake  and  up  again  to  our  own  level  on  the 
distant  horizon.  Right  in  front,  at  our  feet,  is  a  greensward,  falling 
away  and  terraced  with  ledges  of  outcropping  rock.  At  its  end,  with 
our  station  point  as  a  center,  swings  a  black  circle  marking  the 
wooded  course  of  Leatherstocking  Brook,  then  a  circle  of  green 
meadow,  divided  from  the  glistening  waters  of  Otsego  by  a  fringe 
of  blackest  pines.  Then,  miles  away,  sweep  the  great  wooded  curves 
of  the  lake's  further  shores,  and  from  them,  hills  rising  to  horizon, 
circling  arcs  of  natural  loveliness,  ever  widening,  each  successor 
grander  than  its  neighbor,  lawn,  meadow,  lake  and  sky  outlined  by 
bands  of  noble  trees. 

A  part  of  this  is  Leatherstocking  Farm.    It  runs  from  hill  top 


^    < 


173 


TEXTURE    AND    BIG    SCALE    IN    THE    STONE    AND    SHINGLE    OF    LEATHERSTOCKING 

FARM    HOUSE. 


Squires  &   Wynkoop,  Architects. 
TEXTURE     IN     TREE-COVERING     AND     HOUSE-COVERING. 


174 


NATURE'S     NEXT     DOOR     NEIGHBOR. 


xuaK*M»rjH»-l  _:> 


FAR    AWAY    A    GLIMMERING    LAKE. 


175 


5pq 


2:0 

m  A 

"     Q 
r    -O 

i-:ao 

«So 

XWtJ 

«a^ 


-OO 


2^ 

OH 


176 


TEXTURE    AND     SCALE  177 

to  lake.  Leatherstocking  brook  strikes  one  border  at  the  upper  end, 
crosses  the  farm  and  enters  Otsego  at  the  lower  border.  Opposite 
the  brookside  is  a  grove  of  lofty  pines,  and  on  their  edge  is  Leather- 
stocking  Farm  House.  Let  us  forget  that  center  of  sight,  the 
wonderful  point-of-view  where  nature  encircles  us  with  grandeur. 
Consider  for  a  moment  a  modest  house  on  the  edge  of  a  wood. 
Placed  on  a  hillside,  and  rather  large,  it  had  to  take  a  long  form  so 
that  it  could  find  a  level  place  to  rest  on.  The  most  obvious  feature 
of  its  external  appearance  is  its  outhne.  A  low  service  wing  and  a 
casino  flank  a  high  central  mass  still  further  accentuated  by  chim- 
neys at  its  gable  ends.  This  effect  of  central  height  has  been  achieved 
by  considerable  ingenuity  in  plan,  for  the  second  story  of  the  serv- 
ants' wing  has  been  depressed  below  the  line  of  the  main  building 
and  has  no  third  floor  at  all,  while  the  center  boasts  the  height  of 
four. 

The  fall  in  the  ground  from  front  to  rear  has  been  used  to 
give  the  big  rooms  and  porch  a  lower  floor  and  greater  height 
than  the  small  rooms,  while  the  kitchen  and  casino  are  kept  at  the 
lower  level.  It  is  by  such  means  that  in  appearance  the  house 
sticks  firmly  to  its  sloping  site,  yet  has  a  varied  skyline.  A^Hiat  holds 
it  naturally  to  its  environment  of  outcropping  rock  and  rearing  pine 
are  its  materials  and  colors.  The  stone  was  blasted  out  of  the  cellar 
excavation  and  the  roofs  are  pine-green.  You  could  cover  them  with 
green  pine  needles,  and  never  see  the  difference.  The  cypress 
shingles  on  the  house  are  wood's  color,  like  the  dead  pine  needles  of 
the  forest's  floor.  Half  in  the  shadow  of  the  woods,  wood's  colored 
and  old-fashioned,  Leatherstocking  Farm  House  is  Nature's  next 
door  neighbor. 

From  inside,  every  window  frames  a  picture.  One  is  a  mul- 
lioned  panel  of  deep  green  pines,  one  is  a  landscape  of  sky  and  dis- 
tant lake  seen  through  pine  boughs,  another  a  long  painting  of  tree- 
bordered  Leatherstocking  Brook,  beyond  a  terrace  of  jutting  rock, 
topped  vdth  green  lawn  and  splashed  with  a  water-fall  of  fern. 
Best  of  all,  no  picture  is  long  the  same,  for  every  hour  the  sunlight 
changes,  turning  green  pine  to  black,  or  the  wind  blows  the  silver 


178  TEXTURE    AND     SCALE 

powder  off  the  lake,  or  dapples  it  with  foam.  There  have  been  a 
thousand  pictures  in  these  dozen  frames,  and  never  one  %at  was 
not  lovely  or  mysterious.  Wild  creatures  creep  or  fly  into  the  fore- 
ground or  appear,  half  hidden,  in  the  background,  always  in  har- 
mony with  the  other  colors  in  Nature's  accidental  composition,  add- 
ing beauty  of  swift  movement,  or  sweetness  of  wild  music  to  her 
visible  perfections.  I  know  of  nothing  that  could  better  teach  a 
child,  than  to  steep  him  in  Leatherstocking  tales  and  let  him  spend 
an  afternoon  in  the  play-house  with  the  rain  falhng  on  roof  and 
woods,  with  wild  and  mysterious  things  in  the  forest  in  front  and 
home  just  beyond  the  cloistered  passage. 

It  is  the  work  of  an  artist  to  build  a  house  and  then  conform  a 
landscape  to  it.  It  is  no  less  an  artist's  task  to  take  a  God-made 
landscape  and  slip  a  house  into  it  and  not  disturb  a  tree,  a  view  nor 
a  tradition. 

I  would  call  this  full  measure  of  success:  if  a  receptive  man 
might  follow  along  the  gorge  and  past  the  falls,  view  then  that  out- 
look which  woke  stories  out  of  Cooper's  heart,  and  glimpsing 
Leatherstocking  Farm  House,  take  but  casual  count  of  it  in  his 
harmonious  impression. 

I  have  just  ridden  past  those  twenty  mile  stones  from  Phila- 
delphia westward,  marking  the  most  beautiful  of  all  our  suburbs. 
I  lay  a  large  share  of  their  unquestioned  charm  to  the  fact  that  most 
of  the  houses  are  built  of  stone.  They  have  texture  and  scale  as 
titles  to  distinction.  The  size  of  the  ashlar  puts  the  moulded  wood- 
work and  the  muntined  windows  in  interesting  relation,  an  effect 
heightened  by  the  pleasant  color  of  the  stone. 

By  way  of  sprightly  contrast,  yet  still  within  our  study  of 
scale,  let  us  look  at  the  little  old  Dutch  farm  house.  It  owes  its 
charm  to  the  largeness  of  the  brown-stone  ashlar  of  which  its  inter- 
esting walls  are  made.  The  charm  of  every  one  would  diminish 
with  any  reduction  in  the  size  of  its  covering  units.  Therefore  the 
size  of  Texture-Tile. 


THE   NAVE   OF    THIS   OLD    CHURCH    AT    BROGLTE    IS    BUILT    OF 

STONE    NOW    USED    FOR    THE    THIRD   OR    FOURTH    TIME 

AND   CUT    DOWN    IN    SIZE    BY    EACH    REFITTING.       IT 

IS    NOAV    HALF    WAY    BETAVEEN    BRICK    AND 

STONE      AND     HAS     JtTST     THE     SCALE 

OF   TEXTURE    TILE. 


179 


THE    GARGOYLE   GATE   AT   WILLIAMS   COLLEGE 
MOUNT    GREVLOCK." 


Squires  &   IVynkoop,  Arcliitccts. 
IN    SCALE    WITH 


180 


Grosicnor  Atterbuiy,  Architect. 

THIS   IS   AN   EXCELLENT   ILLUSTRATION   OP   THE    EFFECTIVENESS   OF   A   SCALE 

LARGER    THAN  COMMON  BRICK.     HRRE  THE  SIDE  NOT  THE  EDGE  OF 

THE  BRICK  IS  EXPOSED. 


181 


THK     'Jll...'i.--L      L:^:     iJlZ-'     ..T     'VL.: 


THE    EAST    FACADE. 


182 


McKiin,  Mead  &   White,  Architects. 
THE    MORGAN    ART    GALLERY. 


THE    PETIT    TRIANON    AT    VERSAILLES. 


183 


PETIT     TRIANON.  SIDE     TOWARD     THE     GRAND     TRIANON. 


diaries  A.   Piatt,  Architect. 
RESIDENCE    OF    WILLIAM    G.    MATHER,    CLEVELAND,    OHIO. 


184 


Delano  &  Aldrich,  Architects. 

THE    WHITNEY    STUDIO    AT    ROSLYN,     L.     I.         A    FLAT-ROOFED    BUILDING 

OF    HOLLOW-TILE. 


Carlyeiiter  &  Blair,  Architects. 


HOUSE    AT    GREENWICH,     CONN. 


185 


?;  ^ 


186 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Flat   Roofed   House. 

IT  has  been  claimed  that  architecture  should  express  its  purpose. 
Architects  are  urged  to  so  design  as  to  tell  the  truth,  the  whole 

truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  such 
warnings,  the  critic  is  sometimes  called  upon  to  expose  the  tour  de 
force,  to  tear  pretty  mask  from  haggard  visage,  and  such  like 
cruel  things.  How  refreshing,  then,  to  find  a  material  in  some  of 
whose  uses  it  is  harder  to  lie  than  to  tell  the  before-mentioned  truth. 
Such  is  concrete  for  roofs.  Since  all  concrete  is  at  one  time  fluid, 
and  since  all  fluids  seek  their  o^vn  level,  a  law  of  physics  aids  the 
critic  and  enforces  his  teachings  of  architectural  rectitude. 

Since  a  concrete  roof  or  a  tile  and  concrete  roof  needs  must  be 
nearly  flat,  the  designer  cannot  lie  about  it,  so  he  evades  the  issue. 
He  designs  a  building  fireproof  up  to  the  eaves-line,  and  thus  far 
takes  his  client  carefully  along  the  straight  and  narrow  path  with 
arguments  for  safety  and  stability  to  get  him  so  to  build.  What 
then?    Behold,  he  turns  about ! 

"My  dear  client,  here  is  the  roof.  A  building  must  have  a 
visible  roof.    The  figure  must  have  its  hat.    The  design  demands  it." 

"But  is  this  also  fireproof?" 

"Why,  all  but  its  wooden  frame." 

"Well,  why  do  not  the  arguments  by  which  you  won  me  to 
fireproof  construction  hold  as  well  for  the  roof?"  asks  the  tedious 
client. 

Now,  if  our  architect  is  honest,  he  will  say  that  his  conception  of 
this  particular  building  requires  a  picturesque  skyline  of  dark-col- 
ored slate  or  rich-colored  tile,  and  that  he  can't  build  that  kind  of  a 
roof  fireproof,  for  a  reasonable  cost.  If  he  is  very  frank  and  honest, 
he  will  say  that  the  flat  roof  is  the  only  inexpensive  fireproof  roof, 

187 


188  THE     FLAT-ROOFED     HOUSE 

but  he  doesn't  like  a  flat  roof,  and  whether  the  roof  be  inflammable 
or  not  he  is  going  to  stop  his  logic  at  the  eaves  and  get  the  artistic 
effect  that  he  desires,  defensible  or  not.  The  client,  not  dominated 
by  such  artistic  dictation,  must  needs  have  his  faith  in  fireproofing 
most  rudely  shaken  when  he  finds  that  its  very  sponsor  has  not  the 
courage  of  his  structural  convictions  when  it  comes  to  discarding 
a  merely  artistic  effect. 

Now,  if  an  architect  will  not  design  a  flat-roof  house,  he  must 
have  a  good  reason  for  such  refusal.  It  must  be  a  real  reason, 
because  nothing  else  could  force  a  man  into  the  position  of  logic- 
only-to-the-eaves,  and  I  believe  that  his  is  an  honest  prejudice  which 
depends  on  the  fact  that  as  a  designer  he  does  not  wish  to  originate 
in  a  new  material,  after  having  seen  the  many  bastards  so  conceived. 
But  he  has  overlooked  fair  architectural  precedent  which  I  am  striv- 
ing by  a  few  illustrations  to  recall  to  him. 

The  flat  roof  is  almost  universal  in  the  commercial  buildings 
we  see  about  us.  Irrefutable  arguments  of  cost  and  building  law 
have  pinned  the  architect  to  the  flat-roofed  type,  and  accepting  the 
conditions,  he  does  creditable  work.  The  other  illustrations,  chosen 
at  home  and  abroad,  suffer  httle  from  the  uneventfulness  of  their 
skylines  and  their  precedent  is  unimpeachable.  In  no  one  of  them 
was  a  flat  roof  a  necessary  condition  of  structure,  but  a  deliberate 
artistic  choice.  I  haven't  tried  to  show  fireproof  roofs,  but  just 
good  architecture. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  many  a  building  shows  a  roof  in 
elevation  which  shows  nothing  above  the  cornice  when  looked  at 
from  the  ground.  If  such  a  building  is  successful,  it  would  be 
equally  successful  if  the  vanished  roof  had  never  been.  Many  a 
good  designer  has  been  scared  away  from  logic-above-the-eaves  by 
the  exotic  results  produced  by  incapable  men  in  trying  their  hands 
at  expressing  a  new  material,  but  that  there  is  plenty  of  precedent 
for  serious,  scholarly  design  the  illustrations  prove. 

Look  over  the  photographs  you  bought  the  last  time  you  were 
abroad,  and  ponder  prayerfully  whether  artistic  requirements  above 
its  eaves  will  wreck  the  logic  of  your  next  fireproof  house. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

An   Interesting   Experiment. 

THE  house  shown  in  these  pictures  is  the  pioneer  in  Texture- 
Tile.  Its  unusual  form  is  the  outcome  of  an  unusual  situ- 
ation. From  the  side  of  the  hill  opposite  its  approach  circles 
a  panoramic  view  bounded  only  by  the  distant  horizon,  and  the 
wings  of  the  house  are  folded  back  so  that  every  room  commands  it. 
In  so  far  as  this  description  is  concerned,  however,  it  is  the  structural 
aspect  of  the  building  which  will  be  considered. 

This  house  was  designed  originally  to  be  stuccoed,  and  the 
cost  of  the  entire  structure  was  twenty  cents  a  cubic  foot.  A  wall 
of  Texture-Tile  was  substituted  at  no  additional  cost  over  the 
stuccoed  wall.  In  other  words,  this  contractor  estimated  Texture- 
Tile  to  cost  the  same  as  the  older  construction. 

Great  care  was  taken  in  the  office  and  all  the  drawings  were 
laid  out  to  exact  tile  dimensions,  both  horizontally  and  vertically, 
so  that  no  Texture-Tile  should  be  cut,  and  the  two  lowest  courses 
were  laid  dry  all  around  the  building  before  work  was  begun,  to 
show  how  it  should  work  out.  This  kind  of  planning  resulted  in  an 
accurate  and  rapid  piece  of  work.  Three  sizes  of  Texture-Tile 
were  used — the  stretcher,  the  half-stretcher,  and  the  corner  block. 
The  last  was  L-shaped,  showing  a  stretcher  length  on  one  side  and  a 
half-stretcher  on  the  other,  and  has  since  been  abandoned  in  favor 
of  a  simple  rectangular  corner  block  like  a  brick. 

The  openings  in  the  stretchers  are  horizontal,  but  in  the  corners 
had  to  be  vertical  so  as  to  show  no  exterior  apertures. 

In  this  instance  the  Texture-Tile  was  made  from  a  Jersey 
clay,  the  rough  surface  being  obtained  by  mixing  broken  tile  with 
it  and  then  shaving  the  surface  with  a  taut  wire  before  the  blocks 
were  put  in  the  kiln.    More  successful  is  the  use  of  shales,  such  as 


190  AN    INTERESTING    EXPERIMENT 

those  from  which  the  western  and  Pennsylvania  rough  brick  are 
made.  This  tile  should  find  a  use  in  the  most  dignified  building ;  and 
schools,  hospitals,  hotels  and  minor  public  buildings,  the  stuccoing 
of  which  combats  a  popular  prejudice,  will  be  cheaply  and  effectively 
executed  in  Texture- Tile.  This  material  will  remove  the  last  objec- 
tion from  the  minds  of  those  architects  who  do  not  favor  the  use 
of  hollow  terra-cotta  tile  as  a  material  for  the  outside  walls  of 
buildings.  It  is  also  interesting  to  note  that  it  is  always  possible 
to  make  brick  at  the  same  time  and  from  the  same  clay  as  Texture- 
Tile,  which  allows  a  unit  of  new  size  for  use  in  the  design  with  no 
unpleasant  variation  in  color  or  texture. 

As  is  to  be  expected  in  a  pioneer,  there  are  defects  in  this  first 
house.  The  corner  blocks  were  fired  twice  because  the  first  firing 
did  not  burn  them  dark  enough,  but  the  second  firing  burned  them 
too  dark.  Where  the  piers  are  narrow  these  corners  nearly  meet 
and  make  unpleasant  stripes.  There  is  a  trifle  too  much  variation 
in  the  colors  of  nearby  tile  which  even  the  rough-surfaced,  neutral - 
colored  joint  does  not  entirely  overcome.  But,  all  things  considered, 
the  result  is  highly  successful  for  the  artistic  test  is  the  answer  to 
the  question  as  to  whether  or  not  one  would  stucco  the  building,  and 
to  this,  for  all  who  have  seen  it,  the  answer  of  architect  and  layman 
alike  is  an  emphatic  "no." 

The  greatest  charm  is  its  color,  for  it  looks  like  a  rare  old 
Oriental  rug.  The  ensemble  is  solid  and  dignified  and  looks  like  a 
house  there  to  stay,  and  there  is  no  possibility  of  mistaking  its  real 
construction. 

The  wall  has  the  charm  of  all  things  put  together  by  hand,  the 
craftsman  look.  The  variation  in  thickness  of  the  joint,  the  surface 
of  the  joint  itself,  the  slight  variation  in  courses,  all  combine  in  a 
pleasing  result. 

An  examination  of  the  photographs  will  give  an  idea  of  the 
texture  of  the  surface  and  even  its  variations  in  color,  for  all  the 
principles  of  texture  have  been  applied  to  Texture-Tile.  In  many 
cases  there  is  a  decided  change  in  color  in  the  unit  itself,  and  where 
it  is  hard  in  brick  to  get  sufficient  variation  of  color,  it  is  easy  to 


Btutgaloiv  fur  Mr.  Hunicc  I).   Lyon,  Biiglciuood,  X.  J.  licdcrlck  Squires,  Architect. 

THE     FIRST     BUII-DING     OF     TEXTURE     TILE. 


THE   ARTICI'LATIOX   OF   THE   SURFACE   CARRIES    A    GREAT   DISTANCE. 

191 


A    WALL,    LIKE    A    BOKHARA    RUG. 


Bniiijalo-iK.'  firr   Mr.   Horace  D.   Lyon,  Englewood,   N.   J. 


EVEN    THE   COLOR    TEXTURE   IS   APPARENT. 
192 


Albro  &  Lin.u  .j^. ,, ,   .t,\.,ii 

WHEX   BRICK   IS  SET  WITH   ITS  BIG   SIDE  OUT   IT  GIVES  A  HAPPIER   APPEARANCE 
THAN-    IX    AXY    OTHER    WAY. 


Grosiciior  Attcrbury,  Architect. 


THERE   IS   A    TEXTURED    SURFACE    FOR   EVERY    INCH   OF   THESE 
IXTERESTIXG    HOUSES. 


193 


o 


^    III 


194 


AN    INTERESTING    EXPERIMENT 


195 


get  too  much  in  tile.  As  to  the  economy  of  the  large  unit,  there  is 
no  chance  there  for  argument,  for  a  mason  can  lay  a  Texture-Tile 
block  in  the  same  time  it  would  take  him  to  lay  a  brick,  for  the 
block  is  small  enough  to  be  handled  with  one  hand.  The  cost  of 
the  houses  here  mentioned,  furnish  ample  proof  of  the  economy  of 
labor  and  material. 

The  detail  of  the  outside  of  the  porch  is  noteworthy  in  that  the 
texture  of  its  wall  holds  its  own  with  the  little  evergreens — a  most 


MtM   fLOOt    PLAN  • 
PLAN    OF    HOUSE    SHOWN    ON    PAGE    197. 


velvety  kind  of  foliage.  The  picture  indicates  the  variation  in  color 
of  adjoining  blocks  which  could  not  be  more  happy  if  the  blocks 
were  carefully  selected  instead  of  being  used  as  they  happen  to  come. 
There  is  to  the  pictured  wall,  a  velvet  tone  from  the  millions  of  tiny 
shades  and  shadows  cast  by  the  roughened  faces  of  the  blocks.  The 
wide,  uneven  joints  made  with  cement  and  cinders,  are  in  character 
with  the  wall  itself,  and  their  neutral  gray  tones  down  the  contrast 
of  the  colors. 


196 


AN    INTERESTING   EXPERIMENT 


The  picture  of  the  inner  porch  wall  does  not  do  justice  to  the 
charm  of  the  reality.  It  is  colored  like  a  Royal  Bokhara  rug,  and 
its  surface  varies  from  that  of  the  rug  only  in  the  pattern  of  the 
rough,  gray  mortar  joints. 

The  working  drawings  of  a  Texture- Tile  house  should  show 
the  position  of  the  facing  and  backing,  figured  to  tile  sizes.    A  set- 


PLAN  OF  HOUSE  SHOWN  AT  THE  TOP  OF  PAGE  200. 


ting  plan  should  accompany  it,  showing  the  exact  number  of  tile 
and  which  tile  are  omitted  for  door  and  window  openings,  them- 
selves always  in  tile  dimensions.  The  elevations  should  show  the 
number  of  tile  in  the  building,  but  the  setting  plan  proves  of  greater 
service  to  the  builder. 

It  is  not  every  experiment  that  has  such  a  happy  ending  as  this 
first  house  of  Texture-Tile. 


SUCH     MASONRY     NEEDS     LITTLE     HELP     FROM     WOODEN     DECORATION. 


House  of  Mr.  R.  C.  Ga:i  b:e  at  Englewood,  N.  J.  .'\quires  &  IVendehack,  Architects. 

•IHE    WALL    LOOKS    LIKE    THE    NATIVE    ASHLAR. 


197 


House  of  Mr.  Henry  B.  Newhall,  Jr.,  Plainfield,  N.  J.  '      Squires  &■  Wendehack,  Architects. 

THE    WALL.   IS    OP    TEXTURE    TILE    IN    ALL    THE    WOOD    COLORS. 


198 


THE    PLACE    IS    CALLED    THE    "BIRCHES.' 


M.^:     ■  ^-V\    .;,;; 


LU. 


1^-  ^if':  "  ■. 


^m. 


THE    BIG    TULIP    TREE     i.--    AK.vKLY    AS    CHARACTERISTIC. 


199 


Hlouse  of  Mr.  Atzvood,  Tcnafly,  K.  J.  Squires  &  Wendehack,  Architects. 

TEXTURE    TILE    WITH    WIDE    MORTAR   JOINTS. 


H-usc   ui   Mr.    K.    B.    C.    Siintlt,    Icnatly,    X.    J. 


Aymar  Embury   II,   Architect. 


HERE     THE     RESULT     IS     VERY     LIKE     THE     LOCAL     STONE     WHICH     IT     WOULD     HAVE 

BEEX   NATURAL    TO    USE.        THIS    HOUSE    IS    REVOLUTIONARY    IN    MORE 

SENSES    THAN    ONE. 


200 


CHAPTER  XV 

The  House  of  Three   Inventions. 

THERE  are  historic  houses,  houses  famed  for  some  association, 
and  houses  famous  for  themselves.  My  historic  house  is 
the  one  which  shows  in  color  in  the  frontispiece  and  in 
photographs  around  these  lines. 

Every  architect  builds  more  or  less  of  his  life  into  his  houses. 
Most  of  his  hours  have  been  spent  on  them,  and  these  hours  are 
gone,  lost  forever  or  immortalized.  The  client  can  never  reahze 
how  much  the  architect  freely  gives  for  which  he  expects  no  other 
reward  that  the  fulfillment  of  his  vision.  *'The  zeal  of  thine  house 
hath  eaten  me  up"  has  sometimes  been  his  true  though  uncarved 
epitaph.  The  zeal  of  his  house  devours  the  days  of  each  sincere 
designer.  The  extent  to  which  he  puts  himself  into  his  work  is  the 
true  measure  of  his  success.  All  have  limitations,  but  one  produces 
results  nearer  to  his  abihties  than  another.  The  real  test  of  making 
good  is  the  span  between  abihty  and  accomplishment.  The  archi- 
tect magnifies  the  width  and  depth  because  he  confuses  abihties  with 
desires,  and  there  is  forever  a  great  gulf  fixed  between  artistic 
aspiration  and  its  accomplishment. 

The  Texture-Tile  house  will  always  be  one  of  my  landmarks, 
not  because  it  is  a  good  house,  for  it  is  full  of  faults,  but  because 
it  is  honestly  ambitious.  It  is  not  desirous  of  looking  other  than  it 
is,  but  it  is  ambitious  to  exemphfy  those  principles  of  construction 
which  it  has  set  up  as  its  ideals.  Choosing  not  the  stucco  garment 
of  conventional  fashion,  it  has  appeared  in  its  own  proper  person 
in  honest  coat  of  tile.  Long  before  it  was  built,  its  dress  was 
designed  in  the  colored  drawing  which  forms  the  frontispiece  of 
this  book.  This  was  the  house's  first  invention.  Day  by  day,  the 
fight  was  fought  to  materialize  the  vision,  and  although  not  first 

201 


ELEVATION    OF    THE    TEXTURE    TILE    HOUSE. 


•  ¥  M 


FIRST    FLOOR    PLAN    OF    TEXTURE    TILE    HOUSE. 

OR:— 


Bungalow  for  Mr.  Horace  D.  Lyon,  Englewood,  N.  J.  Frederick  Squires,  Architect 

ELEVATIONS   SHOWING  ARTICULATIONS  OF   TEXTURE   TILE. 

202 


House  for  Lewis  Squires  at  Netherwood,  N.   J.  Frclcrick  Squires.  Architect. 

A    GRACIOUS    INTRODI'CTrOX. 


<i  r 


-.^^' 


,-Kiir?.^.'KH' 


FRAMED    IX    OAK. 

203 


A    SHARP   PICTURE    LIKE    THIS   IS    THE    ACID    TEST    OF    TEXTURE    TILE. 


TILE  IS   THE   BIG   BROTHER   OF   THE   BRICK. 
204 


THE  PORCH  AND  PLAYGROUXD  ARE  OX  THE  SOUTH. 


205 


SURFACE  TEXTURE  IS  THE  RESULT  OF   JIILLIOXS  OF  MINUTE  SHADOWS. 


THE  BONDED  WALL. 


THE  HALF  STRETCHER. 


THE  STRETCHER.   NOTE  THE 
ROUGH  SURFACE. 


THE  CORNER  AND  JAMB  BLOCK. 


206 


THE    HOUSE    OF    THREE    INVENTIONS      207 

accomplished  here,  for  the  quicker  moving  operation  just  described 
carried  off  the  pahii,  yet  this  building,  taken  in  stretch  of  time,  from 
conception  to  material  completion,  was  the  leader. 

Although  following  tradition  in  the  gabled  roof,  it  has  the 
courage  of  less  con.  irvative  convictions  in  the  flat  roofs  on  either 
side.  From  its  wings  to  right  and  left,  the  inventions  of  Beveled 
Block  and  Sand  Mould  made  their  debuts  upon  the  stage  of  pro- 
gress. It  is  my  selfish  hope  that  real  advances  in  building  may  look 
back  on  this  little  house  of  Texture-Tile  as  the  source  of  their  suc- 
cess. In  its  short  span  a  hundred  houses,  a  railroad  station  and  an 
office  building  have  followed  its  teaching  of  externals.  The  beveled- 
block  and  sand-mould  ceilings  found  quick  success  within  its  walls, 
and  fireproof  roofs  were  shown  in  it  to  be  inexpensive  and  attractive. 
For  these  potent  reasons  it  is  as  yet  the  farthest  milestone  along  my 
architectural  journey. 

The  Texture-Tile  house  is  a  monument  to  the  materialization 
of  theories.  If  a  man  is  convinced  that  a  theory  is  practicable,  it 
teaches  him  to  put  it  into  practice.  The  chances  are  that  his  theory 
will  work.  If  I  believe  that  ground  cork  and  cement  may  be  mixed 
and  spread  smoothly  over  fireproof  floors,  trowelled  true  and 
smooth,  and  that  this  surface  will  have  the  good  qualities  of  cork 
and  the  well-known  advantages  of  cement;  or  if  I  believe  that  a 
hollow-tile  may  be  mat  glazed  like  beautiful  ceramic  tile,  I  should 
put  it  to  the  actual  test.  The  chances  are  that  it  will  succeed  from 
the  start,  but  if  it  does  not  work,  another  trail  will  open  straight  from 
its  trial  to  success.  It  is  sure  that  if  I  never  try  the  theory,  if  I  keep 
it  stored  in  a  dusty  corner  of  my  mental  attic  where  moth  and  rust 
doth  corrupt,  it  will  disappear  in  dust  or  reappear  in  the  completed 
work  of  someone  less  inert.  I  will  confess  that  many  new  things  in 
these  pages  are  not  the  original  thought,  but  the  offspring  of  that 
thought.  There  is  an  old  saying  that  "God  will  take  care  of  the 
babies."  He  will  take  even  better  care  of  the  babies  of  your  brain, 
but  not  until  you  give  them  birth. 

We  live  in  days  of  progress.  Make  of  them  days  of  building 
progress!     Two  million  women  vote!     The  moving  picture  talks! 


208      THE   HOUSE    OF    THREE   INVENTIONS 

We  telegraph  through  boundless  space  I  Then  shall  we  use  Egyp- 
tian bricks?  Shall  we  make  Roman  concrete,  without  steel?  Shall 
we  exhume  our  house  plans  from  Pompeii?  The  day  and  gener- 
ation cry  advance!  They  crown  initiative!  And  if  architecture 
and  building  are  to  reflect  the  spirit  of  th  se  stirring  times,  let 
their  dead  past  bury  its  dead  and  their  pulsing  present  build  monu- 
ments to  progress. 


'«*1toi>0 


,     SOUTHERN  R?Gf"y°/Ca;,forn,a 

305  De  Neve  Drive    '°'^/\'-  "-'^RARY  FACfL/TY 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


D     000  345  106     9 


